The effects of late Weichselian sediment redistribution on post-glacial isostasy in the Fennoscandian and Barents Sea region

The effects of late Weichselian sediment redistribution on post-glacial isostasy in the Fennoscandian and Barents Sea region

IJpelaar, M.P.

Van der Wal, W. (mentor)

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Geoscience and Remote Sensing

2014-11-14

The sea level equation, originally formalized by Farrell and Clark [1976], is used to determine the gravitationally self-consistent sea level in response to surface loading. Whereas previously only historic ice sheet growth and ablation were taken into account now also the redistribution of sediment is considered. Following the framework of Dalca et al. [2013] the updated theory is applied to a GIA-model which simulates the isostatic response of a spherically symmetric Earth to time-varying ice and sediment loads. The validation of the updated model was performed in two steps; first the model was compared to a previous version using only ice loading and secondly the model was validated with a case study as performed by Dalca et al. [2013], using sediment loading. Two series of late-Weichselian Barents Sea sediment models were created, the first using in-situ observations on sediment displacements and the second using data on glacial erosion from a numerical ice sheet dynamics model. These sediment models were used to run the GIA- model using various viscosity profiles, which approximate the local rheology of the Fennoscandian region. The results were compared with paleo sea level records, GPS-based vertical uplift rates and GRACE gravity changes. Although the inclusion of sediment has little effect on the relative sea level records it does significantly affect the GIA-signal when comparing the results with the GPS and G RACE observations.

Sedimentary isostasy
Isostasy
Post glacial rebound

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3e3b1a9a-86a0-475b-95af-f93a0c8191ad

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2014 IJpelaar, M.P.