The David Glacier is the largest outlet glacier in Northern Victoria Land, draining about 4% of the East Antarctic ice sheet (Rignot, 2002). It extends to Dome C and Talos Dome, forming a floating ice tongue roughly 140 km long and 20 km wide, with 90 km extending into the Ross Sea. Monitoring this area is crucial for understanding ice flow dynamics, bedrock interactions, and mass balance, yet few data are available. This project plans to install 13 GNSS stations along the David Cauldron icefall and Drygalski ice-tongue, including four at locations used in 1992-2006 (Frezzotti et al., 1998; Danesi et al., 2008) to detect flow velocity changes. Additionally, three seismic stations and satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) will complement in-situ data, providing comprehensive glacial monitoring (Moon et al., 2021; Lugli & Vittuari, 2017). The study aims to clarify tidal influences on ice movement (Vittuari et al., 2020), seasonal variations, and non-periodic trends in 3D position data. It will also investigate how subglacial water injections from the David Cauldron icefall affect ice-stream dynamics and their interaction with thermohaline circulation driven by latent polynyas beneath the floating ice (Frezzotti et al., 2000). This integrated approach will enhance understanding of the glacier's behavior and its response to environmental processes.
Project partners
- UniBO (Project PI and RU Leader: Luca Vittuari)
- INGV (RU Leader: Stefania Danesi)
- UniMORE (RU Leader: Cristina Castagnetti)
UNIBO research team
DICAM research areas
Geomatics