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

如今的冰原正在融化，它们产生的融水正在导致海平面上升。数值冰盖模式被用来预测未来的变化，尽管冰盖水文、冰动力和气候之间的联系尚不清楚。我的研究项目提供了经验验证数据（例如，过去的冰盖边缘，融水通道类型和特征），这对于改进这些模型及其预测，以及揭示过去冰盖的历史至关重要。具体来说，本应用程序的研究将：***(1)开发和测试一种新的eskers分类（冰壁融水通道的沉积物模型），这将为冰盖模型提供验证数据，允许对过去冰盖动态进行更可靠的重建，协助加拿大北部的远程预测测绘，并指导骨料和矿物勘探；***(2)量化覆盖加拿大西部的最后一个冰盖（科迪勒兰冰盖）边缘的前冰川湖泊中储存的水量，并确定它们在哪里建坝，何时以及如何排水，以便重建过去的冰盖衰变，为数值冰盖模型提供验证数据，并允许评估与这些事件相关的景观变化。***总而言之，该程序产生的结果对于预测当今冰盖的未来行为至关重要，并将告知我们对过去冰盖水文、动力学和景观演变的理解。此外，过去的融水系统留下了重要的综合资源，这些资源经常在漂流勘探活动中取样，并可能形成重要的含水层。了解这些系统内的沉积物运输，从而能够预测其中的结构变化或运输距离，将有助于更具成本效益的勘探或更具防御性的资源开发。HQP培训将导致向政府和工业界转移急需的知识，并促进对环境负责的发展。

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.