The Cryosphere

Behaviour of cold-based glaciers

Principal Investigator: Sean Fitzsimons
Organisation: University of Otago

What we do: This study investigates the behaviour of cold-based glaciers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The study developed from previous work that focussed on the composition, deformation and mechanical behaviour of basal ice. The objectives of the research are:

1. To understand the geometrical relationships between liquid water, lake ice, glacier ice and frozen sediment at glacier margins
2. Understand the processes involved in the formation, deformation and possible entrainment of aprons that develop at glacier margins;
3. Develop a greater understanding of the mechanical behaviour of basal ice.

Why we do it: Although this previous work has yielded a detailed understanding of the composition and behaviour of basal ice we have yet to understand how cold based glaciers interact with liquid water, ice and frozen sediment at glacier margins. In addition, we have yet to reach a satisfactory understanding of the behaviour of ice-debris mixtures that occur in basal ice.

Recent Publications:
Fitzsimons, S.J., 2005. Mechanical behaviour and structure of the debris-rich basal ice layer. in: Knight, P. (ed.) Glacier Science and Environmental Change. Blackwell, U.K., 251-259. View Abstract.

Souchez, R. Samyn, D., Lorrain, R., Pattyn, F. and Fitzsimons, S. 2004. An isotopic model for basal freeze-on associated with subglacial upward flow of pore water. Geophysical Research Letters 31, L02401. doi:10.1029/2003GL018861. View Abstract. pdf version.

Lloyd Davies, M.T. and Fitzsimons, S.J. 2004. Selected case studies of cold-based glaciers, South Victoria Land, Antarctica. Quaternary Newsletter 104: 30-44.