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Sea-level change in response to the growth and melt of ice sheets and glaciers is a process called glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). This includes deformation of the surface of the Earth itself in response to the extreme mass exchanges between the oceans and continents, as well as changes to the gravitational potential that describe the sea surface in response to the redistribution of surface mass as well as mass within the Earth. This thesis describes four research projects I've conducted in the field of GIA modelling. Most GIA models represent the lithosphere, the outermost layer of the Earth, as functionally elastic. However, there is a large temperature gradient within the lithosphere that would lead to a reduction in viscosity with depth. Therefore, in Chapter 2, I developed and incorporated more realistic lithosphere structure into the GIA model, and demonstrate that this added structure results in a time-dependence to the response of the lithosphere. While the usual inputs to a GIA model are the ice load and Earth description, there are regions where other processes need to be accounted for. In the Mississippi Delta region, processes associated with the deposition of sediment carried by the Mississippi River are strong drivers of local sea-level change, and include isostatic adjustment as well as compaction of the sediment layers over time. Therefore, in Chapter 3, I incorporated a treatment of sediment isostatic adjustment into the GIA model and applied it to the Mississippi Delta region. Our results indicate that the sediment isostatic adjustment signal is important in the vicinity of the delta, but small otherwise. By comparing model projections to GPS measurements, we demonstrate that most subsidence in the region is due to non-isostatic processes (such as sediment compaction). Data used to constrain GIA models are generally sensitive to both ice and Earth structure. Therefore data parametrizations that are insensitive to one input or the other are valuable constraints. One such commonly used parametrization is the postglacial decay time. Previous research has shown that the decay times are relatively insensitive to the ice history, and therefore provide a more robust constraint on Earth structure. In Chapter 4 I tested the extent of the ice insensitivity of decay times by considering a suite of ice reconstructions. I found that decay times are sensitive to ice history, and that the sensitivity depends on the location of the data relative to the geometry of the ice sheet. In particular, my results suggest that James Bay (in Hudson Bay) is a location that should not be used in a decay time analysis. The GIA model applied in the projects described above is a 1-D, spherically symmetric model. However, it is known that the Earth's viscous structure is likely to feature significant lateral variation. This is evident in the differences in viscosities found in this thesis between what satisfies the RSL data in Hudson Bay (in Chapter 4) and the Gulf coast of the US (Chapter 3), as well as various previous studies. Therefore, in Chapter 5, I applied a 3-D model with lateral viscous structure determined by seismic shear wave velocity models, to determine whether incorporating this more realistic structure could resolve this apparent discrepancy. I demonstrated that the fit to relative sea level data on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the US can be significantly improved by incorporating lateral viscous structure, but also that there is significant uncertainty associated with the more complex viscous structure.
by K. Lambeck, R. Sabadini and E. B08Chi Viscosity is one of the important material properties of the Earth, controlling tectonic and dynamic processes such as mantle convection, isostasy, and glacial rebound. Yet it remains a poorly resolved parameter and basic questions such as whether the planet's response to loading is linear or non-linear, or what are its depth and lateral variations remain uncertain. Part of the answer to such questions lies in laboratory observations of the rheology of terrestrial materials. But the extrapolation of such measurements from the laboratory environment to the geological environment is a hazardous and vexing undertaking, for neither the time scales nor the strain rates characterizing the geological processes can be reproduced in the laboratory. General rules for this extrapolation are that if deformation is observed in the laboratory at a particular temperature, deformation in geological environments will occur at a much reduced temperature, and that if at laboratory strain rates a particular deformation mechanism dominates over all others, the relative importance of possible mechanisms may be quite different at the geologically encountered strain rates. Hence experimental results are little more than guidelines as to how the Earth may respond to forces on long time scales.
Eighteen contributions from international scientists discuss recent research on the process of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). Some of the topics covered include the modeling of the Earth's viscoelastic response; the prediction and analysis of sea-level changes and anomalies in the Earth's rotation and gravity field; and the inference of mantle viscosity. The volume is well illustrated with maps and diagrams in b&w and color, but it does not contain an index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.
Treatise on Geophysics, Second Edition, is a comprehensive and in-depth study of the physics of the Earth beyond what any geophysics text has provided previously. Thoroughly revised and updated, it provides fundamental and state-of-the-art discussion of all aspects of geophysics. A highlight of the second edition is a new volume on Near Surface Geophysics that discusses the role of geophysics in the exploitation and conservation of natural resources and the assessment of degradation of natural systems by pollution. Additional features include new material in the Planets and Moon, Mantle Dynamics, Core Dynamics, Crustal and Lithosphere Dynamics, Evolution of the Earth, and Geodesy volumes. New material is also presented on the uses of Earth gravity measurements. This title is essential for professionals, researchers, professors, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of Geophysics and Earth system science. Comprehensive and detailed coverage of all aspects of geophysics Fundamental and state-of-the-art discussions of all research topics Integration of topics into a coherent whole
IAG Symposium, Cairns, Australia, 22-26 August, 2005
"Assessments of future ice sheet and sea-level change require accurate predictions of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). This is particularly true in the vicinity of marine ice sheets, where bedrock uplift and sea level fall along ice-sheet grounding lines may have a significant negative feedback on future ice sheet dynamics (e.g. Gomez et al. 2015; Larour et al., 2019). Assessing GIA in areas of active ice loss in West Antarctica is challenging because the ice is underlain by laterally varying mantle viscosities that are up to several orders of magnitude lower than the global average, leading to a faster and more localized response of the solid Earth to ongoing and future ice sheet retreat and necessitating GIA models that incorporate 3-D viscoelastic Earth structure. The goal of this thesis is to explore the importance of high-resolution GIA modelling by assessing the magnitude and nature of the model error that results from various GIA model setup choices. We focus on investigating the effects of model grid resolution using a GIA model with a high resolution 3-D Earth structure. The influence of grid resolution on GIA predictions is increasingly important to investigate considering the rapid improvements in GIA models capable of km to sub-km scale grids and the need for accurate GIA modelling for future sea-level predictions over the coming few centuries. Chapter 1 provides an overview of GIA physics and modelling and highlights the importance of accurately constraining ongoing and future GIA in Antarctica, particularly in the West Antarctic where large variabilities in the Earth's rheology can contribute to significant uncertainties in sea-level predictions. Chapter 2 describes the construction of a high resolution 3-D (laterally and radially varying) Earth rheology model for Antarctica starting from global and Antarctic seismic tomography datasets. In Chapter 3, we present a manuscript in review with the open access journal The Cryosphere, in which co-authors and I explore the sensitivity of predictions of GIA in response to modern and future ice loss to spatial resolution, focussing on the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) where low viscosity mantle underlays an area of active ice loss. To assess what model resolution is adequate for capturing GIA predictions in the vicinity of ice cover changes, we first conduct sensitivity tests with a suite of numerical grids progressively refined near the load using a finite-volume 3-D GIA model (Latychev et al., 2005) and find that a grid resolution of ~3 times the radius of the load is required to accurately capture the elastic response of the Earth. We then focus on assessing the model grid resolution required to accurately capture both the elastic and viscous GIA process due to modern and future ice-sheet changes in the ASE. We perform a suite of simulations at grid resolutions of 1.9-15km and find that errors of less than 5% along the grounding line can be achieved with a 7.5 km grid, and less than 2% with a 3.75 km grid, even when the input ice model is on a 1 km grid. Lastly, we demonstrate that low mantle viscosities beneath the ASE lead to viscous deformation that contributes to modelled corrections of instrumental record on decadal timescales and equals or dominates over elastic effects by the end of the 21st century. Our findings suggest that for the range of resolutions of 1.9-15 km that we considered, the error due to adopting a coarser grid in this region is negligible compared to the effect of neglecting viscous effects and the uncertainty in the adopted mantle viscosity structure"--