Ice-sheet sensitivity to Earth's surface: an assessment of landscape records ...

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: University of Virginia 2023
• Subjects: ice sheet; geomorphology; glaciology; streamlined subglacial bedform; sedimentology; paleo-environments; solid Earth dynamics; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.18130/sngh-q331; https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/5d86p135d

Understanding drivers of glacier stability is important to consider for future contributions to global sea-level rise. The underlying terrain on which ice sheets, continental-scale amalgamations of glaciers, rest have the ability to modulate ice flow and rates of ice sheet growth and decay, but the influence of subglacial bed conditions is far from straightforward. Difficulties in accessing and studying contemporary subglacial environments leaves gaps in knowledge on the sensitivity of ice sheet behavior across time and space. Deglaciated landscapes that were once covered by ice sheets preserve records in the form of landforms and sediments and provide broad spatiotemporal perspectives on ice-sheet response to subglacial bed conditions. Through the development of a semi-automated mapping tool, 11,628 sedimentary and bedrock streamlined subglacial bedforms, serving as proxies for subglacial processes and ice flow, were mapped across nine sites of varying lithologic and topographic setting in the deglaciated ...