S.T. Lee Lecture 2024-2025

Synopsis of lecture

In the next century, sea level will be mainly affected by the health and volume of the polar ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. In this talk, Professor Sridhar Anandakrishnan will introduce the glacier hydrologic system and a few glaciers he has studied, including the glaciers of the Siple Coast and Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica and Helheim Glacier in Greenland, and their potential to significantly raise global sea level in the coming years. As a geophysicist, he will focus on observations and measurements but also provide insights into how these data are critical for numerical modelling of projected ice sheet change in the future.

Over the past decade, the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration has been conducting a multifaceted study of sea-level rise projections for this critically sensitive region of West Antarctica. However, it is urgent that we now conduct a similar study of potential impacts of East Antarctic glacier mass loss-in particular, the current and future state of the Wilkes Basin. The size, remoteness, and most importantly, the perceived stability of this region has led to relatively little data collection. A coordinated programme here would provide insights on the actual stability of the area.

Sridhar Anandakrishnan

Sridhar is a professor in the Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on understanding how fast-flowing glaciers of Antarctica and Greenland work and how they are changing. These glaciers figure prominently in global sea-level rise and their contribution is likely to grow in future decades.

He uses radars, and seismic, gravity, and other geophysical tools to measure these glaciers. When possible, he uses standard methods, but, when necessary, he has pioneered novel geophysical techniques. He is proud of the many students he has mentored and trained, many of whom have taken leadership roles in glaciology and climate-change research.