EPS Colloquium – Fiamma Straneo, Harvard University

Where Ice Meets Ocean: Discoveries along a glacier front

The Greenland Ice Sheet lost over 5 trillion tons of ice over the last three decades and the ice loss is projected to continue. This loss is driving global sea level rise and inducing a freshening of the North Atlantic with potential consequences for the global ocean circulation. About half of the ice loss is thought to have been triggered by changes at the glacier/ocean interface but the complexity of processes involved, and the intrinsic lack of data means that even a basic understanding of the leading dynamics is missing. Here I provide an example of how we can make progress on this complex problem by showcasing a more than a decade-long, multi-faceted effort to understand a single glacier/fjord system in Greenland. This is a story of muddy plumes, calving of icebergs, waves and melting glaciers which an evolving team of engineers, oceanographers and glaciologists, many of whom students and postdocs, helped unravel.

To be added to the EPS colloquium mailing list, please contact Caroline Carr at carolinecarr@fas.harvard.edu.

Fiamma Straneo joined Harvard University in 2024 as a Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Environmental Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on the climate of the polar regions, including ocean, ice sheets and sea-ice. Much of her group’s efforts are aimed at obtaining data from the undersampled polar regions, using platforms that range from icebreakers to kayaks to autonomous vehicles, and in using these data to advance understanding of polar climate change and its implications for Arctic and global communities.