Dre Natalya Gomez - Ice sheets, sea level and the solid Earth

Résumé / Abstract:

Marine sectors of the Antarctic Ice Sheet are prone to unstable retreat in a warming climate. Observation and modeling-based studies suggest that these sectors have collapsed in the past and have the potential to contribute significantly to sea-level change in coming centuries, but the extent and timing of collapse remains uncertain. Constraining ice cover changes in Antarctica is challenging because the solid Earth, water and ice systems are strongly linked, and modern measurements of these systems contain a large signal from glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) due to past ice mass changes. Furthermore, Earth structure beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet is characterized by significant lateral variability. This talk will focus on the physics of sea-level changes, glacial isostatic adjustment and solid Earth deformation following variations in the distribution of ice and water on the Earth’s surface, and the implications of these changes on the past and future stability and dynamics of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.