Rockslope_failures · Improve our understanding of Rock Slope Failures using calving events
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-06-01 → 2018-05-31
- EU contribution
- €183,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Improve our understanding of Rock Slope Failures using calving events
Glacier calving is one of the main processes generating ice loss from marine-terminating glaciers (and thus, contributing to sea level rise), nevertheless, there still exists a great incertitude concerning the processes that control and lead to iceberg formation and a full understanding of the dynamic processes shaping the termini of glacier fronts is still elusive. This epistemic uncertainty may be related not only to the highly non-linear dynamics of the calving phenomena, but also to the 2D nature and the limited spatial and temporal resolution of the techniques typically used for investigating the rapidly evolving glacier front. Regular and accurate high-resolution measurements are required to quantify these processes and feedback, including both the possibility to identify the elusive existence of calving MF laws at specific regions and to capture the key spatial-temporal linkages between rates of ice calving, flow, surface lowering and frontal advance/retreat. To this end, a new generation of three-dimensional techniques and methods -such as Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)- combined with powerful image processing workflows (e.g. Structure-From-Motion, SFM) will be used in this project.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Rock-slope failure (RSF) processes show very similar fingerprints to ice failures on glacier termini, nevertheless, progressive failures on glacier fronts occur at a much higher rate than that observed on mountain cliffs, which may lead to the latter being used as a proxy for investigating the occurrence of RSF in Alpine areas. I will originally investigate the observed similarities between ice and rock gravity-driven instabilities by monitoring glacier fronts using a dynamic three dimensional remote sensing approach. My research aims are to explore: (a) the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of glacier front instabilities; (b) differential changes in the rate of displacement occurring at several parts of glacier fronts; (c) the existence of structural controls on the failure mechanisms of calving events; (d) the nature of the Magnitude-Frequency calving laws at a high level of detail; (e) The forecasting of single calving events. The back analysis of a plethora of calving events will be used to improve understanding of glacier front processes and also enables the development of better modelling solutions for rock and ice instabilities. The application of rock slope analysis in glaciology is innovative, both for the extraction of single calving events and for the analysis of the precursory indicators preceding the rupture of portions of the glacier front. This investigation is of great importance not only for forecasting the spatial location and the temporal occurrence of calving events, but also for increasing the understanding of scientific problems related to the evolution of slope instabilities that were difficult to investigate to date due to temporal and technological constraints.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE · CAMBRIDGECoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union