Abstract:
The Greenland Ice Sheet has become the largest single source of barystatic sea-level rise in the cryosphere. Numerical models are the best tools to make projections of the future of the ice sheet. However, predicting how fast the ice sheet flows, and when does calving occur at glacier margins has proven to be challenging, primarily because of (1) the limited knowledge of the fate of meltwater in the hydrologic system and (2) the poor representation of ice-ocean interactions. In this talk, I will showcase the development of two process-based models for englacial hydrology and ice-ocean interactions. My poromechanical model reveals that surface-to-bed hydrofracture will not occur in ice slab regions until all pore space proximal to the initial flaw has been filled with solid ice. My discrete element model quantifies the seasonal mélange buttressing force that coincides with observed Greenland calving dynamics. I will also discuss my current research on ice sheet calving dynamics and the breakup of sea ice.
Bio:
Yue (Olivia) Meng joined Purdue University in January this year as an assistant professor in Civil and Construction Engineering. She was a postdoc in the Department of Geophysics at Stanford University and Princeton University. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT in 2022 under the supervision of Professor Ruben Juanes. Her PhD work focused on interactions between multiphase flow and granular mechanics, with application in geological carbon sequestration. During her postdoc, she has been collaborating with climate scientists and physicists to develop process-based models for calving at tidewater glaciers. Her research group at Purdue combines laboratory experiments, computational mechanics, and observations to understand ice-ocean interactions.