Overview

Glaciology: glaciers on the earth's surface; scale and forms. Ice accumulation and ablation; glacier mass balance. Glacier thermal regime. Ice flow/movement. Processes of glacial erosion, sediment entrainment/transport and deposition on land and in the ocean.

Ice sheets as archives of past climate change. Ice core records.

Control of sea-level by glaciers. The glacio-eustatic mechanism, glacio-hydro-isostasy, ice-water gravitational attraction.

High latitude physical oceanography: the generation of deep-cold, bottom water masses (NADW, AABW) and their influence on Northern Atlantic, Southern Ocean and the general circulation of the oceans. The circulation of the Southern, Arctic and North Atlantic oceans.

Terrestrial ice in the ocean: ice shelves, ice tongues, icebergs and their role in deposition and sediment reworking. Tidewater glaciers and fjords. Grounding line fans, glacial debris flows, trough mouth fans, slumps and slides. Glacial geology of the Polar North Atlantic. Icebergs and iceberg scour. Ecology and palaeoecology of glacimarine environments. Criteria used to identify glacimarine environments. Ice-rafted detritus in deep marine sediments.

The module will embed 1. a Field Excursion to Snowdonia (virtually in 2020/2021) to examine glacigenic landforms, 2. desk-top study related to ice-ocean interactions and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 2013, and the writing of a popular scientific text about a glaciological topic.

Assessment Strategy

-threshold - (D minus grade) Demonstrating a basic understanding of different forms of ice in, and in contact with, the ocean, glacier physics, flow, processes of erosion and deposition (on land, in lakes and in the ocean), glacial and glacimarine sediments and sedimentation, ice as a climate archive, and the interactions between the cryosphere and other components of the climate system.

-good - (B grade) Demonstrating a good understanding of different forms of ice in, and in contact with, the ocean, glacier physics, flow, processes of erosion and deposition (on land, in lakes and in the ocean), glacial and glacimarine sediments and sedimentation, ice as a climate archive, and the interactions between the cryosphere and other components of the climate system.

-excellent - (A grade) - Demonstrating an excellent understanding of different forms of ice in, and in contact with, the ocean, glacier physics, flow, processes of erosion and deposition (on land, in lakes and in the ocean), glacial and glacimarine sediments and sedimentation, ice as a archive, and the interactions between the cryosphere and other components of the climate system.

Learning Outcomes

• Describe and interpret glacial landforms in the field.

• Describe the different forms of ice found in or in contact with oceanic waters

• Identify the critical role that glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice play in the global climate system, both as active agents of change and as archives of past change

• Identify the most significant physical and biogeochemical differences characterising cryosphere-hydrosphere interactions in the Arctic and the Southern oceans.

• Relate glacier physics to processes of erosion, sediment entrainment, transport and deposition (both on land and in the ocean)

• Solve simple calculations relating to glacier dynamics and the physical oceanography of the high latitudes