This three-year, $361,678 National Science Foundation project grant supports research investigating the importance of sea-level feedbacks in stabilizing marine-based ice sheets during retreat. Funded under the Geosciences program, which supports basic research expanding understanding of the integrated Earth system, the University of California, Santa Barbara will combine new late Pleistocene/Holocene relative sea-level data from Scotland with ice sheet and glacial isostatic adjustment modeling. Researchers will test hypotheses about whether sea-level feedback stabilized the Minch Ice Stream following the last glacial maximum and whether feedback is governed by regional isostatic adjustment or local ice front conditions. Insights on sensitivity to rheology and other variables will provide better constraints on ice sheet history and size. Project results should deepen understanding of ice sheet behavior and sea-level rise projections.
Generated 1/7/24, 4:22 AM