CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Clarke, G.K.; Jarosch, A.H.; Anslow, F.S.; Radic, V.; and Menounos, B.
Date : 2009.
Title : Regional glaciation modeling with debris transport.
Publication : Eos Transactions AGU. 2009 Joint Assembly. The Meeting of the Americas. May 24-27, 2009. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Issue : 90(22), Joint Assembly Supplement.
Page(s) : Abstract H34C-08.
Abstract
When mountain glaciers waste away they commonly become shrouded with surficial debris and render themselves less vulnerable to subsequent ice loss. Regional glaciation models that aim to predict the rate of disappearance of Earth's glaciers in response to climate warming should therefore include this process. As part of a large-scale study of climate change impacts on glaciers in northwestern North America we have added this feature to a two-dimensional (vertically-integrated) time-evolving regional glaciation model. The model solves conservation equations for englacial and supraglacial debris and simulates the exchange from englacial to supraglacial debris which occurs in response to surface melting. An increasing thickness of supraglacial debris insulates the glacier from summer warmth and reduces the rate of surface melt. We illustrate model performance by applying it to synthetic examples and to the real-world problem of predicting changes in the volume and extent of glaciers in the region of Silverthrone and Klinaklini Glaciers in the Coast Mountains of southwestern British Columbia, Canada.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology