Collaborative Research: Ice-flow history of the Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica

卡塔尼亚0739654该奖项支持一个研究阿蒙森海排水系统的项目，并提高对最近冰川变化的影响的了解，以帮助预测该地区未来将如何变化。这项工作的学术价值在于，阿蒙森海排水系统最近一直是冰川学研究的焦点，因为由于接地线的撤退，那里发生了迅速的变化。这项工作将侧重于流动过渡区域，并将绘制穿过Thwaites冰川剪切边缘的冰盖的内部地层学，并使用雷达探测到的内部层的年龄和几何形状来解释冰流历史。斯韦茨冰川(该地区主要的冰排通道之一)最近加宽了，并可能在不久的将来继续加宽。斯韦茨冰川可能特别容易受到接地线退缩的影响，因为它缺乏一条清晰的冰下水道。冰层下环境对冰流有很强的控制作用，冰流历史将根据冰床地形和冰床反射率绘制。该计划是利用现有的穿冰雷达数据，并与计划中的即将到来的调查相协调，以降低后勤成本。这里提出的工作将需要三年时间来完成，但不需要在南极洲进行额外的实地考察。将需要在关键地点进行更详细的地面地球物理(雷达和地震)试验，以实现我们的总体目标，这里提议的工作将有助于查明这些地区。该项目的更广泛影响是，它将在美国境内的雷达界之间启动一种新的合作，包括那些站在雷达系统工程前沿的雷达界，以及那些积极参与雷达衍生的内层和床层分析的雷达界。该项目还将为一名博士后研究员和一名研究生提供支持，从而使他们接触到各种方法和科学问题。最后，计划在一名实习教师的帮助下，进一步开发由Ginny Catania设计的“连线南极洲”网站。这将允许现有的教案更新为德克萨斯州的标准，以便它们可以在州立初中和高中更广泛地使用。

Catania 0739654This award supports a project to study the Amundsen Sea drainage system and improve understanding of the impact of recent glaciological changes as an aid to predicting how this region will change in the future. The intellectual merit of the work is that the Amundsen Sea drainage system has been a recent focus for glaciological research because of rapid changes occurring there as a result of grounding line retreat. The work will focus on the regions of flow transition and will map the internal stratigraphy of the ice sheet across the Thwaites Glacier shear margins and use the age and geometry of radar-detected internal layers to interpret ice flow history. Thwaites Glacier (one of the main pathways for ice drainage in the region) has recently widened and may continue to do so in the near future. Thwaites Glacier may be particularly vulnerable to grounding line retreat because it lacks a well-defined subglacial channel. The subglacial environment exerts strong control on ice flow and flow history will be mapped in the context of bed topography and bed reflectivity. The plan is to use existing ice-penetrating radar data and coordinate with planned upcoming surveys to reduce logistical costs. The work proposed here will take three years to complete but no additional fieldwork in Antarctica is required. More detailed ground-based geophysical (radar and seismic) experiments will be needed at key locations to achieve our overall goal and the work proposed here will aid in identifying those regions. The broader impacts of the project are that it will initiate a new collaboration among radar communities within the US including those that are on the forefront of radar systems engineering and those that are actively involved in radar-derived internal layer and bed analysis. The project will also provide support for a postdoctoral researcher and a graduate student, thus giving them exposure to a variety of methodologies and scientific issues. Finally, there are plans to further develop the "Wired Antarctica" website designed by Ginny Catania with the help of a student-teacher. This will allow for the existing lesson plans to be updated to Texas State standards so that they can be used more broadly within state middle and high schools.