Speaker: Ravi Duddu, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vanderbilt University
The dynamic ice mass loss from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets into oceans is the greatest source of uncertainty in predicting sea level rise. Fracture propagation in glaciers and ice shelves can accelerate ice flow and cause the detachment of icebergs, thus significantly influencing ice mass loss. It has been hypothesized that hydrofracturing of glaciers and ice shelves followed by enhanced basal sliding and ice cliff failure could contribute to rapid sea level rise over the coming centuries.
In this presentation, Duddu will provide an overview of his recent work on simulating fracture propagation in glaciers and ice shelves using viscoelastic damage mechanics models. Duddu will describe their application in the context of crevasse propagation and ice cliff failure in marine terminating glaciers, rapid supraglacial lake drainage events enabled by turbulent hydraulic fracture, and rift propagation in ice shelves leading to tabular iceberg calving.
In each case, he will discuss the use of data from laboratory experiments and field/satellite observations to inform physics-based computational models.
Acknowledgements: This work is funded by the NSF Antarctic Glaciology and NASA Cryosphere Science programs.
This seminar can also be viewed via our live stream.
Hosted by the Climate, People and the Environment Program (CPEP).