The 2019 Walters Kundert Fellowship has been awarded to Professor Alun Hubbard to investigate the processes of submarine melting and iceberg calving on four of Greenland’s tidewater glaciers.
Over the past two decades Greenland’s ice sheet has shifted from a state of mass equilibrium to actively deglaciating, and as a result has contributed over a third of global sea level rise to date. The increase in mass loss is due to both climate and ocean warming, however the dynamic losses due to submarine melting and iceberg calving are not well understood.
Professor Hubbard from the University of Aberystwyth and his research team will use state of the art laser scanning and digital sea floor mapping to produce 3D measurements of key glacial processes and, for the first time, provide snapshots of frontal mass loss from the glaciers. These will be used to demonstrate the impact of both local climate and ocean circulation on the sensitivity of the glacier outlets and in turn the impact this has on the inland ice sheet. This project will help to develop a more holistic understanding of the processes controlling tidewater glacier retreats in the long term.
Established in 2017, the Walters Kundert Fellowship offers a grant of £10,000 to support research on the physical geography within Arctic and high mountain environments. The Fellowship is supported by the Walters Kundert Charitable Trust. The next deadline for the Fellowship is 23 November. Apply now.
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