The University of Idaho will host the 2024 Future of Greenland ice Sheet Science (FOGSS) workshop April 3-5. The workshop will take place on the UI campus, in Moscow, and also be accessible remotely for those unable to travel.
FOGSS is a joint NSF/NASA-sponsored workshop whereby the community of researchers studying the Greenland Ice Sheet engages in discussion to set research priorities and collaboratively advance our science. You can learn more about FOGSS and the coming workshop here: https://www.fogss-workshop.org/2024-workshop
The UI Glacier Dynamics lab group and alums made an outstanding impression at the AGU fall meeting in SF last week. Six of us attended and shared their most recent work: Grace Barcheck, Chris Miele, Bruno Belotti, Verenis Luca, Yoram Terleth, and Tim Bartholomaus. We gave talks and posters on surge evolution, heterogeneity of ice sheet beds, inclusion within the geosciences, next generation sea level projection, ice shelf fracture, and basal sedimentation.
A highlight of Tim’s meeting was the pride of enjoying all these fine presentations and catching up with this fun team over lunch.
Our group was so proud to host the 50th anniversary of the meeting of Northwest Glaciologists, here at UI, on Oct. 14-15, 2022. We had nearly 60 attendees for about 40 talks and several posters, and the meeting really captured the enthusiasm, community, and celebratory spirit of the long-running meeting.
Thanks to everyone who visited us here in Moscow, and contributed to such a fun event!
We’re so proud of our two most recent lab group graduates, who graduated this last summer. Dr. Chris Miele received his Ph.D. with a dissertation titled “Shearing shelves, mathematical modeling, and fracture factories: analytic and finite element approaches to solving the Stokes equations of glacier flow.” Dakota Pyles received his M.S. with a thesis titled “Mass Continuity Constraints on Ice Ablation in Greenland.”
Lab group members Verenis Lucas, Yoram Terleth, Bruno Belotti, and Tim Bartholomaus participated in the International Glaciological Society’s Symposium on Maritime Glaciers, in Juneau, Alaska. Verenis presented her work on snowpack warming and water infiltration through spring snow, Yoram presented on water flow through and beneath a surging glacier, Bruno presented on patterns of glacier erosion and deposition, and Tim presented on glacier ablation measured from satellites.
We had a great time and enjoyed connecting with the broader community of glaciologists. One of the highlights was the all-day excursion to the Sawyer Glaciers, in Tracy Arm, south of Juneau (see featured photo). And we were excited to have our member, Yoram, win the honor of best student poster presentation!
With the addition of Verenis Lucas, Yoram Terleth, and Bruno Belotti, our lab group has grown to five graduate student researchers. Verenis will be working on early-season glacier hydrology, Yoram on glacier surges and basal motion, and Bruno (co-advised with Dr. Liz Cassel, also in our department) will be working on coupled glacier and landscape change. It’s great having everyone here together!
Five of six glacier dynamics group members gather for a walk in the UI Arboretum. L-R: Tim Bartholomaus, Bruno Belotti, Verenis Lucas, Chris Miele, and Yoram Terleth. Not pictured: Dakota Pyles
The Univ. of Idaho Glacier Dynamics lab is very pleased to announce two new opportunities for prospective Ph.D. students, to start Fall 2021, or potentially earlier.
To understand water flow through and beneath glaciers, and the effect of this water on glacier dynamics, these two Ph.D. students will work with seismic and other geophysical data to meet the goals of NSF- and NASA-funded projects in Alaska. The two projects, Spring melt and basal slip at Wolverine Glacier and Basal slip during a Turner Glacier surge, are described below. Both projects offer significant opportunities for field work, although field work is not required. While applicants for the Ph.D. are preferred, strong M.S. applicants will be considered. You can learn more about the University of Idaho graduate program, research, and life in Moscow, Idaho here.
If you are interested in joining our group to work on these projects, you may send an email with CV to Tim Bartholomaus (address at the bottom) expressing your interest. Applicants should have strong quantitative skills, enthusiasm for scientific computing and geophysics, and a commitment to challenging oneself and learning through the process. Applications to the Ph.D. program at the University of Idaho should be received by January 15th for full consideration.
Spring melt and basal slip at Wolverine Glacier
During the winter, glaciers are covered with a blanket of snow that melts in part or in whole during the summer. As the winter snowpack melts, meltwater must percolate through an initially dry, cold snowpack. This snowpack delays the delivery of meltwater from the glacier surface to the glacier bed and potentially enables a stronger dynamic response to the meltwater once the snowpack saturates. Little is known about glacier hydrology during the winter-spring transition, or anytime outside of mid-summer. Without a more detailed understanding of the full range of glacier hydrology-dynamics coupling, estimates of future sea level rise will continue to suffer large uncertainties.
This project aims to reduce the significant gap in our understanding of glacier hydrology by studying the evolving winter-spring snowpack of Wolverine Glacier, a glacier with a long history of study in the Chugach Range of south-central Alaska. Inspired by coupled hydrologic and dynamic observations, this project will quantify and understand time lags between melt and dynamic effects, assess the relative contributions of runoff and densification to changing snowpack thickness, and produce more complete models of glacier hydrology and dynamics. The student will work with unprecedented data to study the temperature and water pressure evolution within the spring snowpack, glacier motion, and seismic recordings of subglacial water flow. The successful applicant will have the opportunity to participate in field work, including in spring of 2021 and will also participate in science communication, outreach, and teacher training at the University of Idaho McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS). This project is funded by NASA and is part of a larger, multi-investigator, multi-grad student, effort in collaboration with Boise State University and the USGS in Alaska.
Basal slip during a Turner Glacier surge
The relationship between glacier hydrology, subglacial sediment, and glacier motion is poorly understood. Glaciologist’s understanding of the connection between basal slip and drag at the base of glaciers is a foundational gap in understanding of the physics of glaciers and ice sheets. As a result, models aimed at predicting glacier response to increased melt lack predictive capability. In part, this poor understanding results from the historical challenge of observing the subglacial environment over time and space scales, as subglacial hydrology, sediment, and basal slip change.
To meet this observational gap, the UI Glacier Dynamics lab began a project in August 2020 to study the incipient surge of Turner Glacier, in southeast Alaska. The new Ph.D. student will work with seismic data collected on and around the glacier to study water flow and storage beneath the glacier, and knit this seismic analysis with other geophysical datasets to unravel the connections between water, sediment and fast glacier flow. The successful applicant will be able to play a key role in future project field work, although field work is not necessary for the position. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation and represents a collaborative effort with Flavien Beaud at UI/UBC, and Ellyn Enderlin and Dyland Mikesell at Boise State University.
Read more about this exciting project in a previous post, or learn the latest about the project via Twitter.
The Turner Glacier field team lines up in August 2020. Missing: you?
Graduate students Margot Vore (Univ. of Idaho) and Celeste Labedz (Caltech) set up seismic equipment to track glacier hydrology and motion in 2017
Please be in touch about these great opportunities! It’s a wonderful time to join our lab.
The joint U Idaho and BSU field team had a phenomenally successful first field season at Turner Glacier this fall. We installed 26 different geophysical instruments on and around Turner Glacier, including 17 seismometers, that we’ll use to track changes in glacier basal conditions and water storage.
The UI Glacier Dynamics Group gathered for three afternoons, Oct 14-16, in Tim’s driveway and garage to participate in the annual Northwest Glaciologists’ meeting.
Ph.D. candidate Chris Miele presented his latest results from floating ice shelves, and discussed the implications of his findings on glacier retreat in Greenland and Antarctica. Group leader Tim Bartholomaus introduced the new Turner Glacier surge project to the assembled research community.
It was great fun to gather in person, after months of time apart, and actually spend some time in community again- both together, and with the broader community of glaciologists in the Northwest.
Glacier moss balls, and the mystery behind their motion, gained international attention this summer, following a publication in Polar Biology. Group leader Tim Bartholomaus appeared on NPR’s popular Morning Edition broadcast, the CBC’s As It Happens radio show, podcasts, magazines, and many web sites.
See the Media Coverage page for a listing of some of the highlights. It’s been a delight to engage on this topic!
