PROJECTS
Impacts of spatial-temporal precipitation, snowpack properties, and snowmelt variability on alpine landscapes and runoff. This work is funded by the Department of Defense and will continue through 2028. As the climate warms, it's expected that snowpacks at mid-to-high latitude locations will be wetter and potentially reduced in total accumulations as a result of a warming atmosphere. We will study the changes to snowpacks in Arctic and subarctic to look at the links between wet snowpacks and natural hazards such as landslides and flooding. Results will be fed into physical Earth and machine learning models to extrapolate our results across broader regions.
International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration - Our team is part of an international effort to determine how much ice is melting—and how quickly—in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, Antarctica. The Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers, often called the "weak underbelly" of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, are particularly vulnerable. If they collapse, sea levels could rise by several feet, potentially triggering a larger retreat of the entire ice sheet.
We have completed two field seasons (2019-20, 2023-24). During our first season in 2019, we traveled aboard the U.S. icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer to islands near Thwaites Glacier. There, we sampled raised beaches for organic material to reconstruct the region’s relative sea-level history over the past 5,000 years. This research helps determine whether the rapid retreat of Thwaites Glacier today is truly unprecedented. Our second season involved efforts to collect a subglacial bedrock core near the margins on Pine Island Glacier.
Check our publications in Nature Geoscience (here) and Annals of Glaciology (here).
We have completed two field seasons (2019-20, 2023-24). During our first season in 2019, we traveled aboard the U.S. icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer to islands near Thwaites Glacier. There, we sampled raised beaches for organic material to reconstruct the region’s relative sea-level history over the past 5,000 years. This research helps determine whether the rapid retreat of Thwaites Glacier today is truly unprecedented. Our second season involved efforts to collect a subglacial bedrock core near the margins on Pine Island Glacier.
Check our publications in Nature Geoscience (here) and Annals of Glaciology (here).
Southern Patagonian Icefield Project - In collaboration with CONAF & Round River Conservation Studies, we visited tidewater glaciers of the Southern Patagonian Icefield to uncover what is driving their retreat as these glaciers are influenced by both a warming ocean and atmosphere. This research is linked with on-going research in Bernard O' Higgins National Park to understand the role the retreating icefield has on the flora and fauna of the land and ocean.
Juneau Icefield Research Program - I have worked with the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) for over 10 years in a number of roles including student, staff, and research/teaching faculty. My focus on the icefield has been to collect ground-penetrating radar surveys across hundreds of kilometers to image annual snow layers and firn thickness. This research is ongoing and ties into our efforts to quantify snow water equivalent in Alaskan snowpacks.
PREVIOUS PROJECTS
Glaciation of high-altitude Andes, Peru Implications for Paleoclimate and Paleoindian-Age People
In 2013, our team aimed to use glacial geology to address how glaciers behaved during the Terminal Pleistocene in the tropical Andes and how the impacts of ice-marginal fluctuations may have influenced human-environment interactions in southern Peru.
In 2013, our team aimed to use glacial geology to address how glaciers behaved during the Terminal Pleistocene in the tropical Andes and how the impacts of ice-marginal fluctuations may have influenced human-environment interactions in southern Peru.
Reconstructing sea-surface temperatures in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica
In 2013&14, we measured oxygen isotopes from Adamussium colbecki, a small mollusk species, to reconstruct water temperatures for the last 3,000 years. The shells of this species records the temperature of the water in which it grows. We collected shells that date from present to thousands of years old from raised marine deposits to use in the creation of this reconstruction.
In 2013&14, we measured oxygen isotopes from Adamussium colbecki, a small mollusk species, to reconstruct water temperatures for the last 3,000 years. The shells of this species records the temperature of the water in which it grows. We collected shells that date from present to thousands of years old from raised marine deposits to use in the creation of this reconstruction.