Collaborative Research: Glacier-sediment interactions during onset of tidewater glacier retreat

合作研究：潮水冰川退缩开始时冰川与沉积物的相互作用

• 批准号: 2051846
• 负责人: Jason Amundson
• 金额: $ 56.69万
• 依托单位: University of Alaska Southeast Juneau Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-07-15 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2051846&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Glacier; sediment; interactions

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Tidewater glaciers are glaciers that flow into the ocean. Although tidewater glaciers make up a small percent of all the glaciers in the world, they are important for climate because they contain large volumes of ice and because they can change rapidly. Our ability to predict future sea level rise depends on how well we understand these glaciers. Most tidewater glaciers are currently retreating. Until recently, one of the few tidewater glaciers that was advancing was the Taku Glacier in Southeast Alaska. Photos and satellite imagery indicate that the glacier has recently started to retreat, but it is unknown how quickly the glacier will retreat. This project will investigate the early stages of the glacier’s retreat by using time-lapse photography, drone surveys, satellite data, and computer models. The project is expected to lead to a better understanding of tidewater glacier retreat and improve our ability to predict sea level rise. The project will support early career researchers and students, who will also be involved in a field course at the glacier. Tidewater glaciers are known to undergo cycles of slow, centennial-scale advance and rapid, decadal-scale retreat that are driven by processes occurring at the glacier-ocean interface, including iceberg calving, submarine melting, and sediment deposition and erosion. These cycles can occur in a steady climate, but climate can modify the timescales of advance and retreat as well as act as a trigger. Since the advance phase is longer than the retreat phase, in a steady climate one would expect the majority of tidewater glaciers to be advancing. This is not the case at present, as the majority of tidewater glaciers around the world are retreating or in a quasi-stable configuration. Until recently, Taku Glacier in Southeast Alaska was one of the rare advancing tidewater glaciers. Recent observations indicate that, due to a warming climate, the glacier is now thinning over its entire area and has begun to retreat off of the terminal moraine that it developed and prograded over the past 125 years. This project will investigate the processes by which a tidewater glacier transitions into retreat, and the evolving glacier sensitivity to climate during this transition, by integrating field and remote sensing observations of Taku Glacier with numerical modeling experiments. By advancing understanding of tidewater glacier stability, the project will lead to improved estimates of sea level rise. The project will support a postdoctoral scholar and undergraduate research assistants, and field work for this project will occur in parallel with a field course that will be held at the glacier terminus.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项的全部或部分资金来源于《2021 年美国救援计划法案》（公法 117-2）。潮水冰川是流入海洋的冰川，尽管潮水冰川仅占世界冰川的一小部分。它们对气候很重要，因为它们含有大量的冰，而且它们可以迅速变化，我们预测未来海平面上升的能力取决于我们对这些冰川的了解程度。冰川目前正在退缩。直到最近，阿拉斯加东南部的塔库冰川是少数正在退缩的冰川之一。照片和卫星图像表明，冰川最近已经开始退缩，但尚不清楚冰川退缩的速度。该项目将通过使用延时摄影、无人机勘测、卫星数据和计算机模型来调查冰川退缩的早期阶段，预计该项目将有助于更好地了解潮水冰川退缩并改善我们的研究。该项目将为早期职业研究人员和学生提供支持，他们还将参与潮水冰川的实地课程，众所周知，潮水冰川会经历百年规模的缓慢推进和十年规模的快速推进循环。由冰川-海洋界面发生的过程驱动的退缩，包括冰山崩解、海底融化以及沉积物沉积和侵蚀，这些循环可以在稳定的气候中发生，但气候可以改变前进和退缩的时间尺度以及作用。由于前进阶段比退缩阶段长，在稳定的气候下，人们预计大多数潮水冰川都会前进，但目前情况并非如此，因为世界各地的大多数潮水冰川都在退缩。直到最近，阿拉斯加东南部的塔库冰川还是罕见的潮汐冰川之一。最近的观察表明，由于气候变暖，整个地区的冰川正在变薄，并且已经开始变薄。开始从过去 125 年来形成和发展的终端冰碛中退缩。该项目将通过结合现场和远程研究，研究潮水冰川过渡到退缩的过程，以及在这一过渡过程中冰川对气候变化的敏感性。通过数值模拟实验对塔库冰川进行传感观测，该项目将改进对海平面上升的估计，并为此提供支持。该项目将与在冰川终点站举行的实地课程同时进行。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。