CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Demuth, M.; Morris, E.; Marshall, H-P.; Burgess, D.; Koerner, D.; Sekerka, J.; and Fisher, D
Date : 2007.
Title : Characterising glacier facies regime shifts on Devon Island Ice Cap, Nunavut, Canada.
Publication : CMOS, CGU, AMS Congress 2007. "Air, Ocean, Earth and Ice on the Rock". May 28 - June 1, 2007. St. John's Congress Centre, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Issue :
Page(s) : H06-4B4 .6.
Abstract
As the Earth’s coldest regions undergo marked changes due to atmospheric warming, so will the surface facies configurations of its glaciers and ice sheets. Their percolation and wet snow zones will expand upwards and occupy more area. The inherent stratigraphic complexity of these zones will then impart greater uncertainty in glacier and ice sheet mass balance estimates derived from traditional stake and pit methods. Using impulse and FM-CW Gound Penetrating Radars, borehole neutron scattering and manual snow stratigraphy measurements, our goal is to better describe the spatial and temporal variability of the percolation and wet-snow facies. In particular we interpret marked facies regime shifts for the site that are supported by manual in situ mass balance and snowmelt observations. Improved knowledge of such variability has practical significance. First, uncertainties in glacier and ice sheet mass balances remain largely unquantified – this is unsatisfactory as it concerns documenting relatively small changes over large areas. Second, the retrieval of wide-area mass balance change using elevation changes from repeat airborne and orbital altimetry (e.g., ALTM, ICESat, CryoSat) will require information on snow density, densification and the spatial scale of variability over the altimeter footprint.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology