Miss Rebecca Schlegel

My PhD thesis and my current work focus on subglacial bedforms (topographic features which form in the bed underneath flowing ice). Bedforms such as drumlins and mega-scale glacial lineations are found under fast-flowing ice streams, and are known to affect and record ice flow, providing insights into the interaction of ice dynamics and the subglacial environment.

To understand the conditions and processes under which these bedforms evolve, I focus on retrieving high-resolution topography and information on bed properties beneath Rutford Ice Stream in West Antarctica. To achieve this, I acquire densely spaced radar data which are then 3D processed (incl. migration). This results in high-resolution images of the bed topography. To highlight small scale features and complex areas, I further calculate different measures (so called attributes) of the bed, such as the dip and the curvature of the topography.

Using the information I receive from analysing bed properties (soft or hard bed) as well as the detailed topography, I reconstruct the processes and conditions of bedform formation. I further compare these observations from Rutford Ice Stream to existing theories about their formation.

Because there is always a gap between theory and observations, especially when it comes to subglacial bedforms, I recently started working with numerical models (Elmer ice), to see if conditions and processes identified using the geophysical data can initiate bedforms.

IMPACT Fellowship: Welsh European Funding Office (UK)

August 2019: Royal Astronomical Society (UK) Outreach Grant

September 2019: Quaternary Research Association Conference Funding

October 2019: 2019 BGA Image Competition

Andy Smith (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK)

Alex Brisbourne (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK)

Adam Booth (University of Leeds, UK)

Carlos Martin (British Antarctic Survey)

Roger Clark (University of Leeds, UK)