Hallet 9628675 The research bears on an outstanding issue of broad scientific interest: the rate of glacial erosion in a tectonically active area, and its implications for the development of mountain ranges as dictated by the interplay of tectonics, climate, and erosion. The Bering Glacier section of the proposed study also promises to yield valuable new information on rapid glacial over-riding of sediments and its implication regarding the dynamics of glaciers and the stability of calving glaciers. Objectives are: to determine current erosion rates in the extensive (>5000 km2) and tectonically active region drained by Bering Glacier, including the Mt. St. Elias area with unsurpassed relief from sea level, by monitoring sediment accumulation in the proglacial Vitus Lake complex. to examine considerable new data recently obtained by ACCRETE researchers in the fjords and inland passages of SE Alaska. These data promise to yield valuable information about Quaternary and Holocene sediment yields over a broad, heavily glacierized area that can be compared to longer term regional exhumation rates known to be high. to compile readily available data from other SE Alaska glaciers to improve the definition and understanding of factors controlling regional rates of glacial erosion and sediment transfer to fjords. to develop a quantitative framework for exploring the topographic and geodynamic implications of rapid glacial erosion and sediment transfer through a continuum mechanical model of crustal convergence coupled with a simple abstraction of erosion and sediment transfer by glaciers. The multifaceted research is deemed feasible, within the five-year proposed duration of the project: it is a group effort involving four established researchers and is founded on considerable data already available. It involves Lew Hunter of the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, and independently funded USGS researchers, Bruce Molnia and Paul Carslon, as well as principal inves tigator Bernard Hallet and research assistant Yann Merrand (both at the University of Washington). All members will participate in field work. The collective expertise of our team is ideally suited for the proposed work; it emanates from considerable field experience in fjords and coastal waters and on glaciers in Alaska, and from quantitative studies of glacial erosion and calving-margin processes, process geomorphology and geodynamics. We stress that the NSF resources requested herein will strongly leveraged by the collaboration with the USGS and CRREL. Salaries for Molnia and Carlson, and for an electronics technician to support the seismic work, are covered by the USGS. Other USGS contributions include access to past photographic, seismic, and other records; a well equipped base camp; and assistance from volunteers, including undergraduate students, sponsored by the Merit Corp. Limited salary for Hunter permits us not only to draw on his expertise and to include him as an active member of our research team, but also enables us to tap additional expertise at CRREL including Daniel Lawson, to use CRREL editorial, graphics/photography facilities, and to borrow some field equipment.
