Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Seminar
Refreshments provided.
Speaker
Find out more about Christine Dow, Department of Geography and Environmental Management.
Description
The presence of water at the bed of the Antarctic ice sheets is known to be a first order control on ice dynamics. In many regions, distribution and flux of this water is complicated by multi-year storage in subglacial lake basins. With more lakes and pockets of stored water being identified every year from surface altimetry measurements and radio-echo sounding, it is apparent that constraining the impact of this water is an important step for determining the drivers of Antarctic ice dynamics.
Using a numerical modeling approach, I examine the controls on subglacial Antarctic lake growth and drainage within ice streams. I also assess whether the drainage of these lakes has an impact on the dynamics of the ice stream. The methods to achieve this utilize GlaDS, a 2-D finite element subglacial hydrology model, which incorporates development of a coexisting distributed and efficient drainage system. The model is applied to a synthetic system and to fast-flow regions in the East Antarctic: Recovery Ice Stream and Aurora Subglacial Basin, both of which are vulnerable to future climate warming.