Arran Whiteford

Contact

Phone: 04 463 5233 x 7211
Email: Arran.Whiteford@vuw.ac.nz
Office: CO 549

Qualifications

BSc Hons Victoria University of Wellington (2014); MSc University of British Columbia (2018)

PhD Candidate in Glaciology

PhD thesis

Title

Subglacial drainage and the Kamb Ice Stream.

Supervisors

• A/Prof Huw Horgan
• A/Prof Brian Anderson

Project objectives and description

Snow fall adds to Antarctica's ice mass, and is balanced by the discharge of ice into the sea. 90% of this discharge comes from fast flowing ice streams, which move at a hundred times the speed of most Antarctic ice. The speed of ice streams is important - when ice streams speed up, they drain more ice off the continent, shrinking Antarctica's ice sheet and raising sea levels.

The Kamb Ice Stream, which drains West Antarctica, stopped flowing 150 years ago. My project will use geophysical techniques to investigate subglacial drainage conditions at the Kamb, and integrate these into a coupled drainage (GlaDs) ice flow (ELMER) model. Using this model I aim to improve predictions of the Kamb's ice dynamics.

Using similar techniques, I will model coupled subglacial drainage and ice flow on the Haupapa/Tasman Glacier. I aim to use rain-induced speed up events to discover more about subglacial drainage of the Haupapa.