Constraint of GIA signal and uncertainty contributions to vertical motion and sea level change in northern Europe and Scandinavia

Karen Simon, Riccardo Riva

Research output: Contribution to conferencePosterScientific

Abstract

Increasingly, solid Earth and cryosphere studies focus on quantifying the impacts of recently changing climatic conditions on ice sheet coverage and coastal sea level conditions; however, the challenge of separating short time scale climate changes from longer time scale solid Earth processes impedes accurate budgeting of present-day change. In this study, we focus in particular on better constraint of the long term glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) signal at present-day, and its role as a contributor to total present-day rates of change. Both traditional sea level data as well as vertical land motion data are incorporated as constraints in forward and semi-empirical models of glacial isostatic adjustment. The main study area of interest extends northwards from the coastal regions of northern Europe to Scandinavia. The purpose of examining the GIA model variations is twofold: first, we use sea level data from in an around the peripheral regions of the former ice sheet, as well as vertical and horizontal crustal motions to better constrain the magnitude of the regional paleo and present-day GIA signal, and second, the associated uncertainty of the GIA models and its impact on separating GIA from non-GIA signals is also assessed. In previous work, we showed that although GIA model uncertainty is seldom explicitly addressed in GIA studies, variation of the ice sheet model and the representation of model uncertainty itself influenced the separation and interpretation of longer-term GIA signals from shorter-term forcing. Here, rheological variations within the Earth models are also tested with the goal of determining how much this may influence estimates of regional GIA magnitude and uncertainty both in the vertical deformation signal and local sea-level changes.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages1
Publication statusPublished - 2019
EventAGU Fall Meeting 2019 - San Francisco, United States
Duration: 9 Dec 201913 Dec 2019
https://www.agu.org/fall-meeting

Conference

ConferenceAGU Fall Meeting 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Francisco
Period9/12/1913/12/19
Internet address

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