dklusk's blog
Abstract
Submitted by dklusk on Mon, 2009-08-24 23:44.Here's a copy of my AGU abstract. I couldn't figure out how to control font size (wierd thing to be absent from the formatting panel?), so the format is a bit off. I'll provide an update on my progress soon.
Using Passive Seismicity to Characterize and Quantify Tidewater Glacier Dynamics
D. Kluskiewicz1, S. O'Neel2, C. F. Larsen3, M. West3, F. Walter4
(1) The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA USA, (2) USGS AK Science Center, Anchorage AK USA, (3) Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK USA, (4) Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA USA
(dank@psu.edu)
Lots of Progress
Submitted by dklusk on Tue, 2009-07-28 23:47. I spent a lot of the last few weeks using matlab to process and interpret the visual observations of glacier activity that we recorded in the field. Aside from a couple hours (maybe a day) of moderate frustration trying to figure out how to get matlab to import all of our data off of a spreadsheet without any omissions or screwiness (some weird stuff happened the first few tries), the work has been going pretty smoothly and I think that I've made a decent bit of progress toward answering some of our initial questions.
The first-hand observations from the field include the start times, durations, type, and magnitude of the 1300 or so calving events that we recorded at Yahtse's terminus. After getting all of the data into easily workable arrays, I wrote a script to find all of the hour-long intervals of uninterrupted observation in our records and used them to make the following plots:
This plot shows the frequency of all terminus events throughout the duration our visual observations. The curve at the top of the graph is the relative tide level in Icy Bay. I colored the bars so that they are green while the tide was increasing, blue while steady, and red while decreasing. Although there isn't a clear relationship between tide level and calving, there is a hint of correlation between increasing tide and an accelerated calving rate.
Summary of Research and Goals
Submitted by dklusk on Wed, 2009-07-22 00:52.Here's a summary of what I plan to work (and have been working) on this summer, along with some explanation of why it's important. I'll give everyone an update on my progress soon.
continued
Submitted by dklusk on Tue, 2009-07-07 01:39.After a few days devoted primarily to visual observations of glacier activity, we recorded the times and descriptions of approximately 1300 events at Yahtse's terminus. During this time, we also hunted down one of the seismometers that we had placed via helicopter in the alders about two miles behind camp. This task was made pretty difficult because the GPS position of the seismometer had left with the other half of the crew a few days earlier, and because it's difficult to see more than a few feet through alders. Fortunately, by some gift of luck, Fabian (the post-doc) and I stumbled upon it, and we were able to swap the baler out and bring some hard data back to camp to be studied in Anchorage. Conveniently, the weather cleared up right as we were about to run out of food, allowing us to fly back to Chitina.
Along the way, Fabian and I chartered a flight deep into the Wrangell Mountains for a couple days of backpacking. We started out in a elevated valley slightly above treeline and followed the tundra through some pretty remarkable passes, bagging a few peaks along the way. For most of the trip we were able to travel on hiker-friendly moss and other low-lying vegetation, but we did encounter a few intimidatingly dense alder thickets at lower elevations. Aside from the breathtaking views, we had a great encounter with a grizzly bear walking over one of the passes. Our paths crossed with the bear walking toward us along a somewhat restricted route with a lake on one side and steep rocks on the other. Once the bear got within 200 yards or so, we started yelling at it to signal our presence and avoid spooking it up close. The bear, which was clearly intent on reaching the valley behind us, kept on its way, circling around us at about 75 yards and stopping to stare at us a few times along the way.