Tidewater glaciers are the gatekeepers between arctic ice sheets and the ocean. In Greenland, these glaciers are formed from ice that is squeezed into narrow channels called fjords, where the flow rate can reach 50 m/day and cubic-kilometer scale icebergs can fracture and discharge into the ocean. Field campaigns and satellite imagery have revealed the dynamics of tidewater glaciers on timescales from hours to years, but measurements are complicated by the inherent dangers of instrumenting remote, ice-choked fjords. Our lab has investigated several important processes occurring in tidewater glaciers, from glacial earthquakes generated by capsizing icebergs to the jamming behavior of ice mélange (a floating granular material spanning 50 square kilometers).
…Read more
Less…
