Meltwater systems of past ice sheets: implications for ice sheet dynamics, meltwater routing and landscape change

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Present-day ice sheets are melting, and the meltwater generated by them is contributing to sea level rise. Numerical ice sheet models are being used to predict future changes, though the linkages between ice sheet hydrology, ice dynamics and climate remain unclear. My research program provides empirical verification data (e.g., past ice sheet margins, meltwater channel type and character) vital for improving these models and their predictions, and for unraveling the history of past ice sheets. Specifically, the research in this application will:***(1) develop and test a new classification of eskers (sediment casts of ice-walled meltwater channels) that will provide verification data for ice sheet models, allow more robust reconstructions of past ice sheet dynamics, assist remote predictive mapping in Canada's North, and guide aggregate and mineral exploration; and***(2) quantify the amount of water stored in proglacial lakes at the margins of the last ice sheet to cover western Canada (Cordilleran Ice Sheet) and determine where they were dammed and when and how they drained in order to reconstruct past ice sheet decay, provide verification data for numerical ice sheet models and allow assessment of landscape change associated with these events. ***In sum, the results generated by this program are vital to predicting the future behaviour of present-day ice sheets, and will inform our understanding of past ice sheet hydrology and dynamics and landscape evolution. In addition, past meltwater systems left behind important aggregate resources, which are often sampled during drift prospecting campaigns and can form important aquifers. Understanding sediment transport within these systems and thus being able to predict textural changes or transport distances within them will facilitate more cost effective exploration or more defensible resource development. HQP training will result in much needed knowledge transfer to government and industry and facilitate environmentally-responsible development.