Ice Flow

Englacial stresses cause ice to creep internally and the rate of creep depends strongly on temperature and the evolving microstructure of crystal grains. In our group, we model glacier and ice-sheet motion to understand how englacial viscosity of the ice sheet and assumptions about slip at the ice-base interface affect glacier retreat. Using the finite element method and models like icepack and elmer/ice, we can solve equations that describe glacier flow and use some of the unique data our group collects to constrain physical processes that contribute to motion.