CAREER: Fracture Mechanics of Antarctic Ice Shelves and Glaciers - Representing Iceberg Calving in Ice Sheet Models and Developing Cyberlearning Tools for Outreach

Iceberg calving is a complex natural fracture process and a dominant cause of mass loss from the floating ice shelves on the margins of the Antarctic ice sheet. There is concern that rapid changes at these ice shelves can destabilize parts of the ice sheet and accelerate their contribution to sea-level rise. The goal of this project is to understand and simulate the fracture mechanics of calving and to develop physically-consistent calving schemes for ice-sheet models. This would enable more reliable estimation of Antarctic mass loss by reducing the uncertainty in projections. The research plan is integrated with an education and outreach plan that aims to (1) enhance computational modeling skills of engineering and Earth science students through a cross-college course and a high-performance computing workshop and (2) increase participation and diversity in engineering and sciences by providing interdisciplinary research opportunities to undergraduates and by deploying new cyberlearning tools to engage local K-12 students in the Metro Nashville Public Schools in computational science and engineering, and glaciology.

This project aims to provide fundamental understanding of iceberg calving by advancing the frontiers in computational fracture mechanics and nonlinear continuum mechanics and translating it to glaciology. The project investigates crevasse propagation using poro-damage mechanics models for hydrofracture that are consistent with nonlinear viscous ice rheology, along with the thermodynamics of refreezing in narrow crevasses at meter length scales. It will develop a fracture-physics based scheme to better represent calving in ice-sheet models using a multiscale method. The effort will also address research questions related to calving behavior of floating ice shelves and glaciers, with the goal of enabling more reliable prediction of calving fronts in whole-Antarctic ice-sheet simulations over decadal-to-millennial time scales.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.