Rock roll - how arctic alaskan rock glaciers can inform our understanding of ground ICE responses to a rapidly warming arctic climateproject period: 07 01 2024 06 30 2026AWARD purpose: rapid changes…

This $238,914 federal Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Research and Data Collection program (CFDA 15.808) supports a research project titled "ROCK ROLL - How Arctic Alaskan Rock Glaciers Can Inform Our Understanding of Ground Ice Responses to a Rapidly Warming Arctic Climate." The University of Alaska Anchorage, a public research university in Alaska, will lead the project from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2026. The key activities include:

1. Employing geophysical tools to develop an understanding of the internal structure and ice composition of rock glaciers in Arctic Alaska.
2. Applying photogrammetry techniques to establish rock glacier morphology and dynamics.
3. Investigating rock glacier water sources and downstream flow dynamics through instrumentation and sampling.

The project will produce a geomorphic and geophysical dataset of Arctic Alaskan rock glaciers, at least one peer-reviewed publication, two conference proceedings, and contribute to a PhD dissertation. This research aims to enhance the global understanding of how the cryosphere is responding to climate change and benefit the Arctic science community.

Activities

To understand these relationships, the recipient proposes a comparative field programthat will: 1) employ a suite of geophysical tools to develop a view of the internal structure and icecomposition of rock glaciers in arctic alaska 2) apply modern photogrammetry techniques to establishmorphology and rock glacier dynamics and 3) investigate rock glacier water sources and downstreamflow dynamics through instrument and discrete samples.deliverables and expected outcomes: this project will produce a broad geomorphic and geophysicaldataset of arctic alaskan rock glaciers, which will be published in public repositories for communityuse. Additionally, this project will result in at least one peer-reviewed publication and two conferenceproceedings on the structure and hydrodynamics of arctic alaska rock glaciers, and contributesignificantly to the PHD dissertation of at least one graduate student.

Intended beneficiaries

This will generate unique insight into the dynamics and evolution of theseunderstudied periglacial landforms in alaska as well as provide a framework for interpreting globalchanges to rock glacier behavior. This knowledge will enhance our global understanding of how thecryosphere is responding to climate change and benefit the arctic science community. This project willalso help understand the current state of alaskas periglacial water resources and potential impacts andhazards to those resources from thawing sediment-rich rock glacier ICE. The possible destabilization ofrock glaciers and melting of periglacial ICE represents a potentially significant hazard for the quality ofdownstream water resources for northern communities and economic centers. Additionally, studentswill learn applied geophysical and remote sensing techniques, which helps prepare the united statesworkforce for the needs of science and engineering in the 21ST century.

Subrecipient activities

None at this time.