Fundamentals of Glaciology

Catalog description

This course is a physics-based introduction to glacier and ice sheet dynamics, with applications in understanding the response of modern terrestrial ice sheets to a changing climate. Topics covered include ice-sheet mass balance, the material properties and rheology of ice and snow, temperature and heat transport, the basic equations of ice-sheet and ice-shelf flow, basal processes, ice-sheet hydrology, fracture and calving, and ice-atmosphere and ice-ocean interactions. The course also overviews methods of observing ice sheet processes and change, including geophysical methods and satellite and airborne remote sensing.