Jake Slobe | February 15, 2017 Iowa State University’s Neal Iverson and a team of researchers are working on research that will predict how much glaciers will contribute to the rise of sea levels. The research will focus on the extent to which glacier-flow to oceans is likely speed up over the next century as the…
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Glaciologists measure, model hard glacier beds, write slip law to estimate glacier speeds Researchers measure the topography of an exposed glacier bed at Castleguard Glacier in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. Larger photo. Photo by Keith Williams, contributed by Christian Helanow.
AMES, Iowa – The field photos show the hard, rough country that some glaciers slide over: rocky domes and bumps in granite, rocky steps and depressions in limestone. The glacier beds dwarf the researchers and their instruments. (As do the high mountains pictured on the various horizons.)
During their trips to glacier beds recently exposed by retreating glaciers in the Swiss Alps (Rhone, Schwarzburg and Tsanfleuron glaciers) and the Canadian Rockies (Castleguard Glacier), four glaciologists used laser and drone technology to precisely measure the rocky beds and record their very different contours.