The dynamic mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet has prompted considerable research into the role of supraglacial lakes in causing dynamic thinning. These lakes can drain through 1000 m of ice to the bed and are thought to play an important role in connecting the surface and basal hydrologies of the ice sheet, allowing water to reach the bed and cause the ice to accelerate. Despite this apparent importance little research has been carried out on lakes outside of SVV Greenland, and no research has examined the occurrence of lake drainage over the whole of Greenland. The aim of this thesis is to discover where lakes occur for the entire Greenland ice Sheet, and how these lakes drain. New remote sensing techniques for monitoring lakes through the melt season were developed and tested. The evolution of 2600 lakes (those lakes larger than > 0.125 km2) was studied over five years (2005-2009) using 3704 MODIS images. Lakes were discovered to either drain fast to the bed, more slowly over the surface, or to freeze at the end of the melt season. There were 263 fast lake drainages per year of which 61% were in the SW region and a further 17% in the NE, both regions where mass loss is mainly due to surface mass balance. In the dynamically thinning SE region there were only three fast lake drainages per year along a 1300 km coastline. In the NW, fast lake drainage did not occur on five of the ten glaciers with the most rapid dynamic thinning. The results of this thesis show that the drainage of supraglacial lakes cannot have been responsible for dynamic mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet.

The influence of seasonal influx of supraglacial meltwater on basal water pressures and consequent changes in ice surface velocity has been a focus of research spanning over three decades. With a need to better include glacial hydrology within models of ice sheet evolution, the ability to predict where and when meltwater reaches the subglacial system is paramount for understanding the dynamics of large Arctic ice masses. The response of ice velocities to melt production suggests efficient transmission of meltwater from the supraglacial to subglacial hydrologic systems, and it has been shown that build-ups of stored meltwater in supraglacial lakes can force crevasse penetration through hundreds of metres of ice. This thesis presents a new modelling routine for prediction of moulin formation and delivery of meltwater to the ice-bed interface. Temporal and spatial patterns of moulin formation and drainage of supraglacial lakes are presented, and quantitative controls on crevasse propagation are investigated through a series of sensitivity tests. _J .' . The model is applied to two glacial catchments: the Croker Bay catchment of the Devon Ice Cap in High Arctic Canada; and the Leverett glacier catchment of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Through model application to these sites, sensitivities to crevasse surface dimensions, ice tensile strength, ice fracture toughness and air temperatures are investigated. Model predictions of moulin formation and melt transfer are compared with field observations and remotely sensed data, including ice surface velocities, proglacial discharge, dynamic flow regimes, and visible surface features. The inclusion of spatially distributed points of meltwater delivery to the 'subglacial system is imperative to fully understand the behaviour of the subglacial drainage system. Furthermore, dynamic response to future climatic change and melt scenarios, and the evolution of ice masses, cannot be fully understood without first understanding the glacial hydrologic processes driving many of these changes.

The loss of ice from the Greenland ice sheet is an important contributor to current and future sea level rise occurring due to ongoing changes in the global climate. A significant portion of this ice mass loss comes through the calving of large icebergs at Greenland’s many marine-terminating outlet glaciers. However, the dynamics of calving at these glaciers is currently not well understood, complicating projections of future behaviour of these glaciers and mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet. The use of seismological tools has shown promise as a means of both monitoring and better understanding the dynamics of the calving process at these glaciers. On the global scale, data from the long-standing global seismic network has recorded the occurrence of glacial earthquakes, large long period earthquakes that occur during large calving events at near-grounded outlet glaciers. The occurrence and source parameters of these earthquakes provide insight into the link between glacier calving and climatic and oceanic forcings, as well as information on the large-scale glacier-dynamic conditions under which these major calving events occur. On the more local scale, a deployment of seismometers around an individual glacier has provided insights on the seismic environment of a calving glacier, as well as the more immediate, short-term external drivers of calving events. We consider both local and global seismic data in order to further understanding of the dynamics of the calving process at Greenland outlet glaciers, and find that glacial earthquake production is indicative of a near-grounded terminus at the source glacier. We find that the locations derived from these events are accurate and are sensitive to changes in the calving-front position of the source glacier, and that the active-force azimuths are representative of the orientation of the glacier at the time of calving. We also find that these glaciers are the source of abundant small icequakes, which are strongly tied to the occurrence of major calving events. The small icequakes that occur at Helheim glacier are modulated by semi-diurnal variations in tide height, and potentially control the timing of major calving events by progressively damaging the glacier tongue.

Unexpected melting of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during periods of regional cooling characterizes the climate of the last glacial period. While the Heinrich Events are the most well-studied example of this phenomenon, Samuel Toucanne and colleagues recently documented evidence of Fennoscandian Ice Sheet melting during Heinrich Stadials, the cold periods during which Heinrich Events occur. In this dissertation, I use the geographic provenance of sediments in the Bay of Biscay, a proxy for Fennoscandian Ice Sheet melting, along with other paleoclimate records to: (1) demonstrate the persistence of abrupt Fennoscandian Ice Sheet melting as a feature of the Pleistocene climate system, (2) develop a self-consistent explanation for the synchronous melting of ice sheets in the North Atlantic region, and (3) elucidate the timing of abrupt climate change in the Northern Hemisphere. I begin by introducing a framework for inferring the subglacial transport distance of fine sediments from coupled provenance and grain size analyses. This chapter untangles the relationships between the source, size, transport history, and geochemical signature of glacigenic sediments in northern Europe, clarifying the geographical significance of sediment provenance in the Bay of Biscay. I then develop a new method for the spectral analysis of unevenly sampled time series. In the following chapter, I apply the new spectral method to time series of Fennoscandian Ice Sheet melting, Laurentide Ice Sheet melting, and solar activity changes during the last glacial period. Doing so reveals a coherence between ice sheet melting and solar activity and helps explain the quasi-periodic melting of ice sheets on millennial timescales. I then extend the neodymium isotope provenance record of Fennoscandian Ice Sheet melting through Marine Isotope Stage 6, demonstrating that enhanced summertime melting of the FIS during Heinrich Stadials is a recurring feature of glacial periods. In the final chapter, I document a relationship between the occurrence of abrupt ice sheet melting in the Northern Hemisphere and the precession of Earth’s spin axis to reveal an astronomical forcing of millennial-scale climate change.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-105). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

The goal of this thesis is to improve our understanding of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) and how it responds to climate change. This was achieved using ice core records to infer elevation changes of the GrIS during the Holocene (11.7 ka BP to Present). The inferred elevation changes show the response of the ice sheet interior to the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM; 9-5 ka BP) when temperatures across Greenland were warmer than present. These ice-core derived thinning curves act as a new set of key constraints on the deglacial history of the GrIS. Furthermore, a calibration was conducted on a three-dimensional thermomechanical ice sheet, glacial isostatic adjustment, and relative sea-level model of GrIS evolution during the most recent deglaciation (21 ka BP to present). The model was data-constrained to a variety of proxy records from paleoclimate archives and present-day observations of ice thickness and extent.

During the last main phase of glaciations (26-13kaBP) an ice cap developed in south west Ireland and ice, from a dispersal centre in the vicinity of Kenmare, flowed north and diverged on the southern slopes of the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks. On these slopes, a weathering limit separates ice-moulded bedrock, on low ground, from frost-weathered terrain above. Assessment of bedrock dilation joint characteristics, Schmidt hammer R-value data, clay-sized mineral contents and magnetic properties of basal soil samples confirms significant contrasts in the degree of weathering above and below this limit. The weathering limit declines in altitude along former ice flow-lines and is confluent with morainic deposits on the eastern side of the Gap of Dunloe and on the western slopes of Skregbeg. This evidence supports the assertion that the high-level weathering limit is a periglacial trimline that marks the former maximum upper limit of the body of ice, which occupied this area of southwest Ireland during the LGM. This evidence, however, does not confute the notion that cold based, non-erosive plateau ice may have covered some or all of the upland surfaces that occur above the recorded weathering limits. Reconstruction of the former ice surface profile from periglacial trimline limits along three former flow lines yielded mean estimates for basal shear stress that ranged from 104.2 to 125.9 kPa. Although these values are high, they are within the range deemed normal for glaciers and ice sheets. The values suggest that the reconstructed areas of the ice cap were warm based and flowing on a bedrock substrate. This is supported by the geomorphological evidence of these areas, which shows that a landform – sediment association has developed consisting of zones of glacial scour and a thin, discontinuous drift cover. This contrasts with the glacial geomorphology of northern parts of the study area, where drift cover is largely continuous, and extensive in valley bottoms and on surrounding hillsides, and is associated with large lateral moraines.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1993. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [131]-137).

Thesis -- Departmental honors in Chemistry. / Bibliography: ℓ. 40-42.