Jonny Kingslake

Dynamics of Subglacial Outburst Floods
Supervisors: Dr Felix Ng and Professor Grant Bigg
Funding: University of Sheffield PhD Studentship

Biography

I finished a BSc in Physics at the University of York in 2009 and, deciding that I would like to work in an area of science that allows me to go to incredible places and investigate interesting processes, I applied to do a PhD in the Geography department at the University of Sheffield. I am currently nearing the end of my second year. Although my PhD project does not directly involve fieldwork, I have had the opportunity to go to several glaciated/polar regions including Svalbard, Western China, the French Alps and Norway.
I enjoy many outdoor activities including, hiking, climbing, mountaineering, kayaking, cycling, and dinghy sailing.

Research

Outburst floods are rapid discharges of water originating from glacial lakes. These can be marginal, subglacial or supraglacial lakes. Drainage of marginal lakes are a major hazard in many mountain regions, and beneath the polar ice caps drainage from supraglacial or between subglacial lakes is thought to have a significant effect on the flow of the overlying ice.

Drainage events such as these have been the subject of study for several decades. Despite this, many aspects of their behaviour are not fully understood. Satisfactory prediction of flood timing has so far not been achieved and the effects of drainage event of ice basal velocity is not well understood.

My PhD project aims to increase our understanding of the physics behind subglacial outburst floods through mathematical modelling, remote sensing and data analysis, focusing specifically on the following areas;

• mathematical modelling of subglacial water flow to investigate the controls on the timing of floods from marginal lakes
• using insights gained from these theoretical models with data from a lake in Kyrgyzstan to investigate how effectively flood timing can be predicted
• developing a model of subglacial drainage which incorporates a distributed system of subglacial cavities produced by basal ice flow over glacier bed features
• using this model to investigate the links between marginal lake drainage and basal ice velocity
• incorporating into subglacial models a physical representation of the open channel flow which can occur during periods of low melt input to glaciers and ice sheets and following lake drainage events which have terminated due to the complete emptying of the lake
• analysis of satellite imagery of West Greenland to try and investigate the distribution of supraglacial lake area with position and elevation on the ice sheet
• modelling of surface drainage of supraglacial lakes to investigate what controls the stability of lakes to drainage initiated by overtopping

The aim for my PhD thesis is to investigate a broad range of these and related topics through mathematical modelling, remote sensing and data analysis.

Extra Activities

I am on the committee of the UK polar network, www.polarnetwork.org as webmaster and I am a post-grad representative here at Sheffield.                                

Contact Details

Address: A5, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Winter Street, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
Tel: +44 (0)114 222 7914
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 7907
Email: J.Kingslake@Sheffield.ac.uk