Title: Squiggles, surges, and thinning: an overview of Sít’ Tlein’s (Malaspina Glacier) ice dynamics.
Abstract: Sít’ Tlein, located in Southeast Alaska, is the largest piedmont glacier in the world. Periglacial lake expansion, low-lying bed, and proximity to the Pacific Ocean put its lobe at risk of rapid retreat. Its disappearance would equate to removing an area of land about half the size of Rhode Island. Sít’ Tlein exhibits complex ice flow responsible for its iconic folded moraines, and for its highly heterogeneous ice resupply in its lobe, which occasionally surges. This lobe is gradually mantled by debris and vegetation as the ice flow fades towards its margins, protecting it from melting. We leverage historical and modern ice surface velocity datasets, coupled with novel data interpolation and decomposition techniques, to shed light on the events that shaped the glacier’s lobe in the past century. With the help of digital elevation models spanning 2000 to 2022, we were able to establish a hierarchy of surface processes leading the retreat of the lobe, linking together the lobe’s recent dynamics and its surface changes. The results highlight a vast richness of mechanisms that shape this glacier, from the alternating ice flow direction to the inevitable surface degradation of stagnant ice areas, all telling the story of how the last fully extended temperate piedmont glacier on Earth will soon retreat beyond recognition.
Biography: I am a Ph.D student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, focusing on glacier surface dynamics from remote sensing data. I am particularly interested in data patterns from newly released regional and global datasets, granting us new insights into how glaciers behave at multiple spatio-temporal scales. Recently, I became interested in linking data science and art to overhaul scientific presentations and communicate my work on these fascinating systems more efficiently.
To join virtually: Zoom
Contact: vdevauxchupin@alaska.edu
Website: victor.science
Recording: Zoom Recording (will be available within a week after the seminar)