Basal Morphology and Dynamics of a Temperate Surge-Type Glacier

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This award supports a three year project to determine the morphology of the base of a surge-type glacier (Black Rapids Glacier, Alaska) using modern wireline drilling and sampling techniques, along with related measurements of basal water pressure, surface speed and other parameters. The project is an attempt to shed light, by direct observation, on the most important unsolved problem in glacier and ice sheet dynamics: the role of basal motion and how it is affected by the basal morphology. The role of bed morphology in glacier surging is of particular interest, because the restricted geographic occurrence of these glaciers may reflect necessary basal conditions. The drilling and sampling program proposed here should be able to recover continuous core of virtually any length, from the base of the clean ice, through any basal ice, sediments or combination of sediments and ice, and into the underlying bedrock. Although such sampling has been accomplished before in connection with mineral exploration, it would be the first scientific effort of its kind in a temperate glacier.