Lumps, bumps and dirt: using glacial landforms and sediments to reconstruct glacier dynamics

With Ben Chandler, University of Nottingham.

All seminars online. Please contact sue.davis@nottingham.ac.uk for the link. Subject to change.

Part of the Geosciences Seminar Series.

Abstract

The majority of glaciers and ice-caps globally are experiencing ice-frontal retreat and mass loss in response to climate warming, and it is predicted that glaciers could almost or entirely disappear in some mountain ranges during this century. To contextualise ongoing glacier retreat and thinning, and to reduce uncertainties in projections of future glacier response to climate change, long-term records of glacier dynamics and glacier-climate interactions are required. Regular monitoring and measurements of glaciers have only been undertaken since the early to mid-1900s in many areas, offering only a snapshot of glacier response to climate change. In contrast, glacial landforms provide abundant and widespread evidence of past glacier activity over different timescales and in a variety of settings. These important geological archives can be used to reconstruct glacier dynamics and glacier-climate interactions, and to provide benchmark tests for numerical models.

This talk will use examples from my research in Scotland, Iceland and Sweden to demonstrate how the distribution and internal sedimentary architecture of glacial landforms can be used to extract information on glacier dynamics and glacier-climate interactions