Seminar series
Date
Fri, 31 Jan 2014
Time
14:15 -
15:15
Location
C6
Speaker
Mauro Werder
Organisation
University of Bristol
Jakobshavn Isbrae and many other fast flowing outlet glaciers of present
and past ice sheets lie in deep troughs which often have several
overdeepened sections. To make their fast flow possible their bed needs
to be slippery which in turn means high basal water pressures. I will
present a model of subglacial water flow and its application to
Jakobshavn. I find that, somewhat surprisingly, the reason for
Jakobshavn's fast flow might be the pressure dependence of the melting
point of ice. The model itself describes the unusual fluid dynamics occurring underneath the ice; it has an interesting mathematical structure that presents computational challenges.