[ESS] Sophie Coulson (UNH)

“Predicting and Observing Patterns of Modern Sea Level Change and Crustal Deformation”

Rapid melting of ice sheets and glaciers drives a unique geometry, or fingerprint, of sea level change. As an ice sheet loses mass, its gravitational attraction on the nearby ocean is reduced, causing ocean water to migrate away from the ice sheet. Additionally, the solid Earth rebounds in response to the reduction in surface loading. This combination of geophysical processes leads to a sea level fall within ~2000 km of the melting ice sheet and a progressive sea level rise outside of this region. The pattern of 3D crustal deformation generated extends large distances from the center of ice mass loss. In this talk, I will discuss numerical models developed to predict these patterns of sea level change, and datasets that capture the associated perturbations to both sea surface height and crustal motion over the last few decades. Specifically, I will discuss the first unambiguous detection of the fingerprint of sea level change from Greenland Ice Sheet mass loss in satellite altimetry data for sea surface height changes in the oceans encircling Greenland. I will also explore predictions of the extent and magnitude of 3D crustal deformation generated by rapid ice mass loss in the Arctic, the potential implications of these crustal motions for widely used GNSS datasets, and the associated perturbations to regional crustal strain fields. Understanding the spatiotemporal complexity of these processes is critical for predicting regional sea level change, interpreting geodetic datasets and assessing seismic and coastal hazards in our progressively warming world.

Earth Science Seminar —

Lecture portion of the EAPS graduate-level class 12.571, covering current research in geophysics, geology, geochemistry, and geobiology. All members of the MIT community are welcome to join for presentations by guest speakers, held approximately every two weeks during the term.

Contact: earth-science-seminar-info@mit.edu