Sea-level rise is one of the most critical issues the world faces under global warming. However, the accuracy of sea-level rise projections is compromised by the crude, empirical laws used to characterise mass loss from glaciers and ice sheets, the phenomenon that constitutes the largest contributor to sea-level rise. There is a need for physically-based computational models capable of predicting iceberg calving due to hydrofracture, one of the most prominent yet less understood glacial mass processes.
We have tried to contribute to this important yet challenging problem by:
▪ Developing a new class of phase field models for hydrofracturing of creeping glaciers and ice shelves.
▪ Unraveling the important role that ice viscosity plays in governing ice sheet fracture phenomena, explaining rapid drainage of supraglacial lakes
▪ Characterising the influence of firn-layer material properties on surface crevasse propagation in glaciers and ice shelves