Greta Stuthridge
Contact
Email: Greta.Stuthridge@vuw.ac.nz
Mobile: 027 326 5752
Office: CO421
Qualifications
BSc Victoria University of Wellington (2019)
MSc Candidate in Environmental Science
Master thesis
Title
Glacier Recession in the Lake Tennyson/Upper Clarence catchment, New Zealand, following the termination of the Last Glacial Maximum
Supervisors
- Dr Shaun Eaves
- A/Prof Kevin Norton (SGEES)
- Dr Andrew Lorrey (NIWA)
Project objectives and description
Mountain glaciers are responsive climate instruments, providing clear signals of climate change, as atmospheric variability forces mass changes that transpire as glacier length fluctuations. These glacier length changes are etched into the geological record as geological features, delineating abrupt paleoclimate events. The global climatic transition (warming) at the termination of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (~19-20 ka) involved large readjustments of Earth's climate and cryosphere, producing well-preserved traces of glacial activity. Because the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases has led to the likelihood of substantial future climatic warming, the termination of the LGM offers itself as a natural experiment for the impacts of abrupt climate change. Constraining the timing and magnitude of ice recession following the LGM in New Zealand helps to realise potential future cryosphere response. In other words, looking back to see forward.
The central aim of my study is to constrain the rate and style of LGM termination glacier length changes in the Lake Tennyson, Northern Canterbury, New Zealand catchment. In doing so, the first complete record of the catchment's deglaciation will be produced and will offer the opportunity to inform more robust glacier modelling in New Zealand, which at present under-represents Northern Canterbury.
The research is motivated by the following three objectives:
Objective 1 - Develop a moraine chronology for the Lake Tennyson/Upper Clarence catchment using cosmogenic 10Be surface exposure dating.
Objective 2 - Document the distribution of glacial landforms in the surrounds of Lake Tennyson through detailed geomorphological mapping.
Objective 3 - Produce an equilibrium line for the Tennyson glacier, inferred from a glacier-chronology-derived climate reconstruction.