Anisotropic Flow, Depth-age Relationships and Stratigraphic Disturbances in Polar Sheets: Collaborative Research by the Universities of Washington and Colorado

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This award supports a collaborative program to bring together glaciology and structural geology to tackle two related cross-disciplinary issues. The project will investigate the geological mechanisms known to operate in anisotropic rocks that may also generate stratigraphic disruptions in polar ice. A series of analytical and semi-analytical models to explore conditions for and onset of folding, kinking, fabric striping, and shear banding in polar ice sheets will be developed using linearization and perturbation methods. A fundamental goal is a new ability to estimate the maximum depths of undisturbed ice for ice cores in various settings. The bulk anisotropic properties of polar ice will also be incorporated in a new finite element dynamic ice flow model. One goal is to extend the models of layer disruption processes to large strains. This model will also be used to improve the predicted depth-age relationships for ice core sites, and to produce improved calculations of the thinning functions needed to convert measured layer thicknesses to past accumulation rates for deep ice that has a strongly anisotropic bulk fabric.