GLACIOLOGY

Prerequisites: At least a year of calculus and physics; any 1000-level or 2000-level EESC course. Recommended: EESC2100 (Climate System), EESC2200 (Solid Earth), EESC3201 (Solid Earth Dynamics). Experience using MATLAB, Python/Numpy. This course examines processes controlling how glaciers and ice sheets grow, retreat, modify their landscape and interact with the rest of the Earth system. We focus on what controls surface mass balance, the transformation from snow to ice, ice deformation, basal sliding, the temperature and age of ice, the flow of water through ice sheets and glaciers, and the two-way interactions between ice and the oceans, atmosphere and solid earth. Weekly lectures are accompanied by practical computer sessions that equip students with key numerical and data analysis skills used in research of glacial processes.