Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson: glaciology
Lecture 1
Ice on Earth during the Pleistocene. Present-day distribution of polar and
temperate ice.
The crystalline structure of ice. Transformation of snow to ice.
Grain-growth and recrystallization
in ice. Air bubbles and clathrates. Temperature profiles in ice sheets.
Ice deformation, flow
of glaciers and ice sheets. Paleoclimate, past greenhouse gas composition
and atmospheric
aerosols as recorded in Greenland and Antarctic ice cores.
Lecture 2
Antarctica: Formation and history of the ice sheet. Present knowledge of
mass balance and
ice flow patterns. Antarctic subglacial environments, inferred
glaciological, chemical and
geological properties of the subglacial lakes. Biological study of the
accreted ice in the
lowest part of the Vostok ice core. Status of plans to sample Lake Vostok.
The Ellworth
subglacial lake project.
Lecture 3
Iceland: General outline of geology and geophysics with focus on
astrobiologically relevant sites.
Temperate ice caps in Iceland; history, mass balance, internal structure
and dynamics. Ice-volcano
interactions in Iceland. Jökulhlaup (outburst flood) mechanisms.
Subglacial lakes sustained by
geothermal activity: Grímsvötn and Skaftárkatlar. Geochemical and
biological studies on the
subglacial lakes.
Lecture 4
Special topics: Origin of water on Earth. The North GRIP core from
Greenland and studies
of the basal sediment. Water and ice on Mars. The ice cover and ocean on
Europa.