A complete understanding of glacier dynamics requires exploration across time scales. My research centers on using environmental seismology to investigate glacier behavior that occurs at faster timescales than traditional glaciological techniques are optimized for. These seconds-to-hours scale processes are critical for understanding glacier motion, hydrology, and hazards.
Learn more about my ongoing research topics below, and check out my Google Scholar profile.
Glaciohydraulic Tremor
My work explores the dynamics of glacier hydrology using the seismic tremor generated by water turbulence and sediment transport. I found that glaciohydraulic tremor can be used to map variation in subglacial pressurization across a single glacier at sub-daily time scales, which you can read about here in JGR Earth Surface. I’m now investigating what seismic tremor can reveal about how subglacial systems recover in the months after large events like glacial lake outburst floods.
Cryoseismicity
I investigate patterns in space, time, and magnitude of icequakes to understand how stress is accommodated by crevassing on short time scales. My work shows great diversity in how individual surface crevasses develop on glaciers; I gave an invited talk at AGU 2022 on these results, and my collaborators and I will be submitting to Seismica shortly. I am also currently investigating what icequakes can reveal about the initiation and early development of glacial lake outburst floods.
GLOF Hazards & Early Warning
Much of my newest work is focused on understanding the way that glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) hazard changes over time by integrating seismic observation with other local and remote geophysical data, and investigating the potential of seismology as an early-warning tool by analyzing seismic data recorded near a glacier during GLOF initiation. Keep an eye out for upcoming results, and check out this Nature Reviews Earth & Environment paper I contributed to.
Anthropogenic Seismic Noise
As a break from the glaciological, I also explore seismic signals generated by human activity. I collaborated on a paper in Science showing seismic noise level drops due to COVID-19 mitigation, I enjoy sharing seismic data from events like concerts and sports, and I am investigating how human geographic factors connect to seismic noise levels and how those connections can help us improve equity in seismic hazard analysis.