Student’s research examines world’s largest piedmont glacier

University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists are presenting their work at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in New Orleans this week. This article is part of a series highlighting UAF research from the world’s largest Earth and space science meeting.

Understanding the surges and retreats of Alaska’s Malaspina Glacier is key if climate change models are to be applied to the glacier with confidence. Work by graduate student Victor Devaux-Chupin at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute is providing some answers.

The Malaspina consists of three lobes, each fed by its own glacier. Devaux-Chupin’s analysis of data from 1984 to this year shows the Malaspina surges approximately every 10 years, principally from the central lobe, which is the largest.

The glacier is surging once again, and the central lobe is leading the way.

“Our goal is to be able to model the glacier to put simulations of climate change on it to assess how much it might melt and retreat over the coming decades,” said Devaux-Chupin, who is working with UAF physics professor Martin Truffer. “To do that, we need to understand it. And one of the first steps is to look at it from satellite images to understand how it flows.”

Study of the glacier is important for climate change analysis because the Malaspina is the world’s largest piedmont glacier, a type of glacier that spills from a narrow valley into a flat plain and spreads out like a fan.

Because much of the Malaspina Glacier is below sea level, an advancing lake of seawater could form in the depression left when the glacier eventually retreats. Ocean contact hastens glacial retreat.

“What it means is that it's really a sitting duck for climate change,” Devaux-Chupin said.

Devaux-Chupin’s abstract is here.