This award is for a postdoctoral fellowship. The investigator will apply both geological and glaciological techniques to reconstruct the last 2000 years of ice surface elevation changes in the Ford Ranges, Antarctica, merging the existing geological information and data from a new glaciological study into a more complete picture of ice sheet change from the Holocene to the present. Geomorphic mapping will establish which parts of the ice margin are stable or actively retreating, and expand the existing set of exposure ages to include very recently deglaciated surfaces. The glaciology of the fringing ice fields that separate most exposure-dating sites from the major trunk glaciers will also be investigated. The result will be a better understanding of how to connect exposure age dates to past changes in important glaciological parameters, and a comprehensive history of Holocene to present ice surface elevation changes. The investigator is knowledgeable in the relevant glacial geology and cosmogenic-nuclide geochemistry, but has limited expertise in glaciology. This project is designed to better equip him to work on interdisciplinary questions in antarctic research through training in glaciology, and developing an ability to plan and lead antarctic fieldwork.
