Modeling and Field Constraints on Glacier Dynamics, Erosion, and Alpine Landscape Evolution

Modeling and Field Constraints on Glacier Dynamics, Erosion, and Alpine Landscape Evolution
Author: Kelly Revenaugh MacGregor
Publisher:
Total Pages: 590
Release: 2002
Genre: Glacial erosion
ISBN:

"Glacial erosion is an important but poorly understood agent of alpine landscape evolution. Development of the glacial longitudinal profile was examined with a numerical model, while glacier sliding and its control were the subjects of a field project. Seasonal changes in meteorology, ice dynamics, and hydrology were documented at the Bench Glacier, Chugach Range, Alaska. A wave of elevated sliding velocity traveled from the glacier terminus into the accumulation zone at a rate of -250 m/day. GPS-measured vertical velocities demonstrated divergence of the glacier surface from the bed, with maximum uplift rates coincident with maximum sliding velocities. Apparent bed separation was approximately 15 cm. Both the sliding wave and surface uplift occurred during a time of positive water storage in the glacier. The data suggest that upglacier propagation of a linked cavity network, may explain the observed sliding event. The effect of glacial erosion over 105-106 year timescales was addressed using a numerical model that incorporates the relevant glaciological processes that operate to produce hanging valleys. bedrock steps. overdeepenings and cirques. Simulations always show rapid flattening of the longitudinal profile from a fluvial initial condition. Inclusion of a tributary glacier creates a step in the main valley below the tributary junction that persists over multiple glaciations and generates a hanging valley. Steps result from increased ice discharge below tributary junctions, accommodated by increased ice thickness and sliding. The height of the hanging valley reflects the difference in the time-integrated discharge of ice in the tributary and the trunk valleys. Addition of a plateau allowed incorporation of blowing snow, avalanches, and headwall backwearing processes. In both steady and sawtooth climate scenarios, headwalls increase in length, steepen, and retreat over time. Bedrock cirques form in steady climate simulations only at the end of the model runs: the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) is hundreds of meters above the cirque floor. However, the time-averaged location of the ELA corresponds with the down-glacier cirque position. While the final profiles are relatively insensitive to the erosion rule used, quarrying is most effective near the upper glacier, whereas abrasion reflects the instantaneous pattern of integrated ice discharge"--Leafves xiii-xiv

Tectonics, Climate, and Landscape Evolution

Tectonics, Climate, and Landscape Evolution
Author: Sean D. Willett
Publisher: Geological Society of America
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0813723981

"The Liwu River runs a short course; its channel head at the water divide in Taiwan's Central Range is a mere 35 km from its outflow into the Pacific Ocean. But in those short 35 km, the Liwu has carved one of the world's geographic wonders: the spectacular Taroko Gorge with marble and granite walls soaring nearly 1000 m above the river channel. Taroko Gorge was a fitting venue for a 2003 Penrose Conference that addressed the coupled processes of tectonics, climate, and landscape evolution. The young mountains, extreme weather, and dramatic landforms provided an appropriate backdrop to wide-ranging discussions of geomorphic processes, climate and meteorology, sediment generation and transport, the effects of erosion on tectonics, and new analytical and modeling tools used to address these processes and problems. This volume's papers extend that discussion, reaching across fields that have experienced rapid advances in the past decade."--Publisher's website.

Glacier Science and Environmental Change

Glacier Science and Environmental Change
Author: Peter G. Knight
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 544
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0470750235

Glacier Science and Environmental Change is an authoritative and comprehensive reference work on contemporary issues in glaciology. It explores the interface between glacier science and environmental change, in the past, present, and future. Written by the world’s foremost authorities in the subject and researchers at the scientific frontier where conventional wisdom of approach comes face to face with unsolved problems, this book provides: state-of-the-art reviews of the key topics in glaciology and related disciplines in environmental change cutting-edge case studies of the latest research an interdisciplinary synthesis of the issues that draw together the research efforts of glaciologists and scientists from other areas such as geologists, hydrologists, and climatologists color-plate section (with selected extra figures provided in color at www.blackwellpublishing.com/knight). The topics in this book have been carefully chosen to reflect current priorities in research, the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, and the developing relationship between glaciology and studies of environmental change. Glacier Science and Environmental Change is essential reading for advanced undergraduates, postgraduate research students, and professional researchers in glaciology, geology, geography, geophysics, climatology, and related disciplines.

Treatise on Geomorphology

Treatise on Geomorphology
Author:
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 6392
Release: 2013-02-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0080885225

The changing focus and approach of geomorphic research suggests that the time is opportune for a summary of the state of discipline. The number of peer-reviewed papers published in geomorphic journals has grown steadily for more than two decades and, more importantly, the diversity of authors with respect to geographic location and disciplinary background (geography, geology, ecology, civil engineering, computer science, geographic information science, and others) has expanded dramatically. As more good minds are drawn to geomorphology, and the breadth of the peer-reviewed literature grows, an effective summary of contemporary geomorphic knowledge becomes increasingly difficult. The fourteen volumes of this Treatise on Geomorphology will provide an important reference for users from undergraduate students looking for term paper topics, to graduate students starting a literature review for their thesis work, and professionals seeking a concise summary of a particular topic. Information on the historical development of diverse topics within geomorphology provides context for ongoing research; discussion of research strategies, equipment, and field methods, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations reflect the multiple approaches to understanding Earth’s surfaces; and summaries of outstanding research questions highlight future challenges and suggest productive new avenues for research. Our future ability to adapt to geomorphic changes in the critical zone very much hinges upon how well landform scientists comprehend the dynamics of Earth’s diverse surfaces. This Treatise on Geomorphology provides a useful synthesis of the state of the discipline, as well as highlighting productive research directions, that Educators and students/researchers will find useful. Geomorphology has advanced greatly in the last 10 years to become a very interdisciplinary field. Undergraduate students looking for term paper topics, to graduate students starting a literature review for their thesis work, and professionals seeking a concise summary of a particular topic will find the answers they need in this broad reference work which has been designed and written to accommodate their diverse backgrounds and levels of understanding Editor-in-Chief, Prof. J. F. Shroder of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, is past president of the QG&G section of the Geological Society of America and present Trustee of the GSA Foundation, while being well respected in the geomorphology research community and having won numerous awards in the field. A host of noted international geomorphologists have contributed state-of-the-art chapters to the work. Readers can be guaranteed that every chapter in this extensive work has been critically reviewed for consistency and accuracy by the World expert Volume Editors and by the Editor-in-Chief himself No other reference work exists in the area of Geomorphology that offers the breadth and depth of information contained in this 14-volume masterpiece. From the foundations and history of geomorphology through to geomorphological innovations and computer modelling, and the past and future states of landform science, no "stone" has been left unturned!

Geomorphology of Proglacial Systems

Geomorphology of Proglacial Systems
Author: Tobias Heckmann
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2018-11-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319941844

This book discusses the recession of alpine glaciers since the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA), which has been accelerating in the past decades. It provides an overview of the research in the field, presenting definitions and information about the different proglacial areas and systems. A number of case studies are from the PROSA project group which encompasses the expertise of geomorphologists, geologists, glaciologists and geodesists. The PROSA joint project (High-resolution measurements of morphodynamics in rapidly changing PROglacial Systems of the Alps) is determined to tackle the problems of geomorphic activity on sediment export through a quantification of sediment fluxes effected by the aforementioned geomorphic processes within the forefield of the Gepatschferner glacier (Central Alps, Austria).

Treatise on Geophysics

Treatise on Geophysics
Author:
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 5604
Release: 2015-04-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0444538038

Treatise on Geophysics, Second Edition, is a comprehensive and in-depth study of the physics of the Earth beyond what any geophysics text has provided previously. Thoroughly revised and updated, it provides fundamental and state-of-the-art discussion of all aspects of geophysics. A highlight of the second edition is a new volume on Near Surface Geophysics that discusses the role of geophysics in the exploitation and conservation of natural resources and the assessment of degradation of natural systems by pollution. Additional features include new material in the Planets and Moon, Mantle Dynamics, Core Dynamics, Crustal and Lithosphere Dynamics, Evolution of the Earth, and Geodesy volumes. New material is also presented on the uses of Earth gravity measurements. This title is essential for professionals, researchers, professors, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of Geophysics and Earth system science. Comprehensive and detailed coverage of all aspects of geophysics Fundamental and state-of-the-art discussions of all research topics Integration of topics into a coherent whole

Theoretical Glaciology

Theoretical Glaciology
Author: K. Hutter
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 535
Release: 2017-03-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401511675

The purpose and scope of this book on theoretical glaciology is outlined in the Introduction. Its aim is to study the theoretical aspects of'ice mechanics' and the 'dynamics of ice masses in a geophysical environment. For the mature reader, the book can serve as an introduction to glaciology. How ever, this is not what I would regard as advisible. Glaciology is an inter disciplinary science in which many special scientific disciplines play their part, from descriptive geography to fairly abstract mathematics. Advance ment will evolve from a merger of two or more branches of scientific specialization. In the last 20 years, several researchers in different fields of glaciology have written books emphasizing the aspects of their specialities and I have listed some which are known to me at the end of the Introduction. When glancing through these books, one recognizes that the mathematical aspects of glaciology are generally glossed over and, to date, there seems to be nothing available which concentrates on these. Therefore, I have written this book in an effort to close the gap and no apologies are offered for the mathematical emphasis. Rather, I believe that this neglect has, to a certain extent, aggra vated progress in the modelling of glaciology problems.