International Symposium on Fast Glacier Flow

University Of Alaska Fairbanks Campus, Fairbanks AK

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract OPP-0119714 Echelmeyer The Principal Investigator is requesting funds from the Antarctic Glaciology and Arctic Natural Sciences Programs to support the participation of several foreign scientists and U.S. graduate students at an International Symposium on Fast Glacier Flow. In 1986, a Chapman Conference on Fast Glacier Flow was held to bring together scientists who were actively involved in the study of surging and fast tidewater glaciers, and ice stream flow. The meeting illuminated several outstanding problems which contributed to numerous inter-disciplinary studies in the Antarctic and Arctic. Since 1986, there have been many important new developments in our understanding of the properties and processes involved in fast glacier flow and of its consequences in the global climate and ocean systems. For example, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet initiative has brought the roles of highly deformable subglacial till and marginal shear-zone ice dynamics to the forefront as important processes in fast glacier motion. This research has led to new approaches in the study of surging glaciers in the Arctic. Detailed studies of outlet glaciers in Greenland and tidewater glaciers in Alaska have been important in determining the roles of fast glacier flow and iceberg calving in ice sheet mass balance, as well as their roles in ice sheet disintegration and their effects on ocean circulation through Heinrich-type events. New remote sensing techniques have been used to illuminate features of ice stream flow and surge-type glaciers in both Antarctica and the Arctic, including the identification of a large ice stream in northeast Greenland and possible rapid drawdown of the Pine Island/Thwaites drainage basins in Antarctica. Because of these exciting new developments, the Principal Investigator will host an International Symposium on Fast Glacier Flow in 2002 sponsored by the International Glaciological Society in Yakutat, Alaska. Yakutat is located among the largest and most active tidewater and surging glaciers in the North America. The meeting will be organized through the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska - Fairbanks. This proposal seeks funds to partially defray the cost of organizing and carrying out this symposium. Bringing together Antarctic and Arctic scientists working on these different aspects of rapid ice motion should promote vigorous discussion and an exchange of ideas on the current state of knowledge. The symposium will focus on the most pressing unanswered questions of fast glacier flow, leading to discussions of future directions for international, inter-disciplinary research. Peer-reviewed papers resulting from oral and poster presentations at the symposium will be published in the Annals of Glaciology.