S.T. Lee Lecture - Seminar series: GNS Science

S.T. Lee Lecture - Seminar series: GNS Science

A decade of autonomous geodetic and geophysical imaging of Antarctica: Geodynamics, ice sheets and future sea level

Professor Emerita Terry Wilson
Terry Wilson

The Byrd Polar and Climate Research Centre, The Ohio State University, USA

Wednesday 14 April 2021

12.00pm - 1.00pm

Malahoff Theatre (G-142a), GNS Science, 1 Fairway Drive, Avalon, Lower Hutt

Abstract

An autonomous network of GNSS and seismic instruments across Antarctica has provided over a decade of new and surprising observations about continental dynamics and how the solid earth interacts with the overlying Antarctic ice sheet. Seismological studies provide new insights on subglacial magmatism, geothermal heat flux, tectonic and glacial seismicity, and the complex lateral structure of the deep Earth in Antarctica.  Crustal motion patterns derived from GNSS are markedly different than motions predicted from glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) models that load globally representative 1-D Earth models with Last Glacial Maximum ice histories.  In West Antarctica, measured crustal uplift reaches 5 cm/yr in the region of large modern ice loss inboard of the Amundsen Sea coast. Integration of geodesy, seismology, and next-generation GIA models is required to better understand GIA on a complex, dynamic continent overlain by a rapidly changing ice sheet.  Newly recognized Earth-Ice feedbacks have important implications for future ice sheet evolution and global sea-level change.

All Welcome