Sub-glacial landscapes from ice penetrating radar in Antarctica from the scale of ice cores to ice sheets scales
By Duncan Young (UTIG)
Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:30am - 11:30am Central Time
Host: Don Blankenship
Abstract: The sub-glacial landscape of Antarctica is critical for understanding the evolution of the ice sheet and associated sedimentary basins, the behavior of the ice sheet's sub-glacial water system, and site selection for deep ice sheet in situ access. However, in Antarctica we have sparse data of a range of vintages that must be used carefully to generate a full picture of the landscape, its lithological variability and interwoven water systems. In this presentation, I first describe the results of a recent high resolution survey of an old ice site in central East Antarctica, and its implications for understanding the sub-glacial morphology. I then move out to the scale of individual sedimentary basins, with an improved method of characterizing sub-glacial water systems from range delayed scattered energy. I conclude by estimating the variation in the statistical properties of the grounded ice sheet bed at large scales for identifying major sedimentary basins and characterizing their influence on water systems and indications of their origin in time, using additional aero-geophysical datasets.
