Speakers: Meagan Wengrove, College of Engineering, Oregon State University, Jonathan Nash, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University and Erin Pettit, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University

Topic: Making measurements at the face of an actively calving tidewater glacier

One of the biggest sources of uncertainty in projecting sea level rise is the accurate prediction of tidewater glacier melt rates.  Despite the fact that we can observe our glaciers retreating, very few observations of glacier melt rates exist.  The observations we have made come from remote sensing, and suggest that the leading predictive models are underestimating melt by a factor of 10-100.  That means we still don’t have a great idea of what is controlling glaciers to melt as fast as they are melting. Why? Because it is hugely challenging to make underwater measurements of processes that control melt at the face of an actively calving tidewater glacier terminus.

Yet! Our collaborative and innovative team have ideas about why glaciers may be melting faster than the prevalent models predict.  This includes interesting physics of buoyant melt plume convection, rough ice surfaces, bubbles popping out of the ice (that not only make sounds, but also cause the ice to melt faster!)  We are making extremely important, cool!, and at times scary measurements of ice melt and of the processes that control melt at the terminus of Xeitl Sít’ (also known as LeConte Glacier) in Southeast Alaska. Never before made measurements are collected from robotic platforms that can travel right to the ice-ocean interface (no human can be aboard).

Come join us to hear about glacier retreat, the processes we think may be important for melt at the ice-ocean interface, the way we are making insightful new measurements and what we have learned so far to deduce the source of the missing melt.