Initial Publication Date: October 11, 2023

Student Materials

For the Instructor

These student materials complement the Long-term Spatial Transformations of the Glacier Basin System Instructor Materials. If you would like your students to have access to the student materials, we suggest you point them at the Student Version which omits the framing pages with information designed for faculty (and this box).

Module 2: Long-term Spatial Transformations of the Glacier Basin System

Pre-Unit prep:

Review Module 1 Unit 1 content. Module 2 is designed to be taught after Module 1, but could be taught after review of Module 1 Unit 1 review, and shortened content from Module 1 items as needed based on other classroom prep.

Overarching goals from Module 1 Unit 1:

  • Develop a sense of place for the Greenland Ice Sheet.
  • Understand glacier basin system components and seasonal changes.
  • Connect surface, englacial and subglacial features and processes.
  • Understand changes that occur over decadal timescales in a glacial basin system.

Unit 1: Reconstructing Past Ice Margin Positions

Introduction to long-term changes of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Note: Pre-Class Readings for Part 2 (see below)

Video: Introduction to long-term climatic changes of the earth system and Greenland Ice Sheet WGRZ-TV-The science of climate change

Part 1: Glacial Landforms and Ice Margins

Students start with a point of speculation/ hypothesis making re: where are current and past moraine locations, interpretation of landscape features, estimation of age based on modern retreat rates. Students explore the glacial landforms of west Greenland with images/360 IE.

If Using 360 IE

If NOT Using 360 IE

  • Image Slide Deck (same as above): Module 2 Unit 1 Part 1 Glacial Landforms of Greenland

Part 2: Proxy Records and Retreat Timing

Students learn about how ice cores, lake sediment cores, and age-dating of rock surfaces can be used to determine the timing of glacial advance/retreat and extent of the ice sheet. Students then explore observations/evidence of ice margin retreat thru multiple time periods (Early Holocene, Neoglacial, Little Ice Age, present) from Greenland datasets.

Pre-Class: Reading: Students read assigned sections of the Lesnek et al., 2020 and Briner et al., 2010 (2 groups splitting 1st half/2nd half of each paper)-see Resources at bottom

Videos: Students watch videos on the combined use of ice cores and radar imaging to determine the age of the Greenland Ice Sheet. ClimateCentral-Drilling Back to the Future: Climate Clues from Ancient Ice on Greenland  and NASA Greenland's Ice Layers Mapped in 3D

Discuss suite of climate and ice sheet margin proxies (include sediment cores, cosmogenic nuclides, ice cores) and explore (1-2) in-depth. Groups of students investigate a specific proxy and then Jigsaw to share out about what they found.

Ice margin location and ages via proxy data and direct measurements

Part 3: Interpreting Proxy Records

Students work together to interpret an additional proxy record using a specific dataset. Three proxy methods (exposure ages, ice cores, and sediment cores) to jigsaw for the class.

What we learned: 

  • Estimate the ice margin position over thousands of years using proxy data.
  • Calculate rates of ice sheet margin change over time and space. 

References and Resources

Ice Cores

Vinther, B., Buchardt, S., Clausen, H. et al. Holocene thinning of the Greenland ice sheet. Nature 461, 385–388 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08355

Kobashi, T., et al., 2011. High variability of Greenland surface temperature over the past 4000 years estimated from trapped air in an ice core. Geophysical Research Letters, 38(21). https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL049444

Sediment Cores

Briner, J.P. et al., 2010. Using proglacial-threshold lakes to constrain fluctuations of the Jakobshavn Isbræ ice margin, western Greenland, during the Holocene. 29(27), pp.3861–3874. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379110003276.

Axford, Y., Losee, S., Briner, J.P., Francis, D.R., Langdon, P.G. and Walker, I.R., 2013. Holocene temperature history at the western Greenland Ice Sheet margin reconstructed from lake sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews, 59, pp.87-100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.10.024

Carrivick, J.L. et al., 2018. Ice-dammed lake and ice-margin evolution during the Holocene in the Kangerlussuaq area of west Greenland. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 50(1), pp.1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2017.1420854

Cosmogenic Exposure Dating

Young, N. E., Briner, J. P., Miller, G. H., Lesnek, A. J., Crump, S. E., Thomas, E. K., et al. (2020). Deglaciation of the Greenland and Laurentide ice sheets interrupted by glacier advance during abrupt coolings. QSR, 229, 106091. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.106091

Lesnek, A. J., Briner, J. P., Young, N. E., & Cuzzone, J. K. (2020). Maximum southwest Greenland ice sheet recession in the early Holocene. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2019GL083164. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083164

Levy, L.B. et al., 2012. Age of the Orkendalen moraines, Kangerlussuaq, Greenland: constraints on the extent of the southwestern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews, 52(C), pp.1–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.07.021

 Carlson, A.E. et al., 2014. Earliest Holocene south Greenland ice sheet retreat within its late Holocene extent. Geophysical Research Letters, 41(15), pp.5514–5521. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL060800

Original Proxy Data

Proxy data from NOAA-NCEI Paleoclimatology: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data

Proxy data from Arctic Data Center https://arcticdata.io/catalog

Proxy data from Pangaea: https://pangaea.de

Unit 2: Processes of ice margin retreat and elevation/thickness change

Part 1: Processes driving ice margin, elevation, and thickness change

Exploring GIS and an online tool to examine ice edge changes over multiple decades. This exploration should be integrated with discussion of ice sheet mass balance, melt, and ice sheet edge changes across varying environments (e.g., marine-terminating glaciers, land-terminating glaciers, other ice edge regions).

Part 1 exercises use the QGreenland QGIS environment. Follow these instructions to install these tools Mod 1 GIS Setup Instructions.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 2.3MB Dec8 21)

Part 2: Determining Glacier Advance/Retreat from Landforms

Students explore and identify erosional and depositional landforms in ice margin images and based on glacial features determine if ice is advancing or retreating or stable. (These landforms are one way we identify advance/retreat).

ArcticDEM Elevation Explorer: https://livingatlas2.arcgis.com/arcticdemexplorer/

  • Students identify elevation transects across landform features at the ice margin and elevation change at a specific margin location (e.g., Russell Terminus) 
  • Exercise: Arctic DEM Explorer tool to identify glacial landform features and measure surface elevation changes Mod2 Unit2 Part2 Arctic DEM Erosional-Depositional Landforms STUDENT.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 498kB Oct9 23)
  • In addition, use GoogleEarth Pro to explore and identify recent (tip: select Historical Imagery) erosional and depositional landforms indicating current ice margin changes for close-up views

What we learned:

  • Recognize the natural factors that cause glaciers/ice sheets to advance and retreat
  • Identify types of erosional and depositional landforms that indicate ice advance, stability, or retreat

Unit 3: Distinguishing between natural climate variability and anthropogenic forcings

Part 1: Historical Glacier Terminus Positions 

Pre-class Reading: Roe, Journal of Glaciology, 2011 (first 4 pages) https://doi.org/10.3189/002214311796905640

Students review aerial maps/ imagery of Greenland outlet glaciers (like Jakobshavn or Russell/Leverett) to identify terminus position since the end of the Little Ice Age (~1850) using GoogleEarth.

Leading prompts - What do you notice about the glacier termini? Have they advanced, retreated, or remained stable. What do you think might be the explanation for the changes?

Focus question - Are these observations outside the natural/expected glacial length variations? Students come up with possible methods to answer this question.

Part 2: Glacier Length Change- Natural vs. Anthropogenic Forcing?

Students use satellite imagery of specific outlet glaciers to determine the length of retreat (if any) using the Arctic DEM Explorer. Then, based on the historical observations (Greenland glacier length change dataset), calculate the rate of terminus retreat per decade since the Little Ice Age and compare to the Early-Mid Holocene ice margin retreat  (this builds off Mod 2, Unit 1).

  • Image Slide Deck: Revisit Natural glacier length variability vs. forced (anthropogenic) from Mod1 Unit2 Part3 Mod 1 Unit 2 Part 3 Basics Glacier Length Variation.pptx (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 30.4MB Dec12 22)
    • Discuss how the timing of the glacier's characteristic response time (Tau = h/b) is linked to average thickness (h in m) and accumulation (b in m/yr), which can produce lagged responses to climate forcing based on the glacier's size?

Students use the Greenland glacier length data and rates of change to determine how much of the observed changes are within natural variability vs. anthropogenic warming (assuming pre-Industrial changes are a benchmark for natural rates)?

What we learned:

  • Differentiate between Natural vs. Human forcings that cause glaciers/ice sheets to advance and retreat
  • Determine that the response of glacier/ice sheet margin retreat in Greenland is outside of the natural/expected variations
  • Determine that the rates of retreat and thickness change have accelerated beyond historical/proxy levels with continued carbon emissions

Unit 4: Future ice margin response to climate

Driving Question: What is the range of possible futures for the Greenland Ice Sheet size and shape?

Learning Goals: 1) Evaluate how the GrIS future margin depends on the climate scenario path. 2) Examine the expected spatial path of GrIS retreat as it relates to climate, topography, and ice dynamics

Part 1: Climate Scenarios and Greenland's Future 

Using images and videos, students consider the current mass changes of the Greenland Ice Sheet and learn about how scientists use scenarios to project the future of the climate and the Greenland Ice Sheet. Students are introduced to the Aschwanden et al., 2019 research in preparation to interact with these data in QGreenland and QGIS.

In the Unit 4 exercise, students begin by calculating the volume of the ice sheet at present and then predict how long it might take for the full ice sheet to melt away. They then consider ice sheet model results for a range of future climate scenarios, reflecting on the most likely scenario based on current global policies and commitments. Using the future ice sheet projections, students examine the spatial patterns of ice sheet change and the possible causes for creation of these patterns. Finally, students consider the wider system changes that may be reflected in this future landscape.

Part 2: Connecting Greenland with the Global Earth System and You!

Module 2 wrap-up where students consider how the future changes in Greenland impact the human and natural world globally.  Consider sea level rise projections, along with precipitation and temperature changes.

If sharing in class, the Instructor can play the videos, or if assigned as homework, students can view the GCM projections of IPCC scenarios and explore the modelling tools below.

Think/Pair/Share (here are several suggested prompts):

  • How do the changes in Greenland interact with the global Earth system? 
  • How might these broader changes impact your region locally; in your lifetime and 4 generations from now?
  • Beyond the physical environment, how would these changes impact communities, economies, livelihood, geopolitics,  and culture?
  • How might scientific and technological advancements help mitigate the impacts of these climate changes?
  • What actions do you think should be taken at local, regional, or national levels to plan for these changes?

What we learned:

  • Evaluate how the GrIS future margin depends on the climate scenario path. 
  • Examine the expected spatial path of GrIS retreat as it relates to climate, topography, and ice dynamics.
  • Explored how broader climate changes will impact local and regional communities over multiple timescales.

 


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