Dr. Karen Alley

GEOG 4670: Global Cryosphere
GEOG 3490: Glacial Geology and Geomorphology
GEOG 2550: Geomorphology
GEOG 1290: Introduction to Physical Geography

My research is part of the large glaciological community effort to understand how the world’s glaciers and ice sheets are contributing to sea-level rise in a warming climate. I am particularly interested in the ice-ocean interactions that hold a major control on the stability of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets and many smaller ice caps and glaciers. Much of my work has focused on the nature of melting beneath the floating ice shelves that fringe the Antarctic continent, which in turn modulates rates of ice delivery to the ocean. My current interests have expanded to include processes at other ice-stream boundaries: the calving processes that control rates of ice-tongue retreat and ice-shelf collapse, grounding-line processes that change ice flow velocities and the impacts of the ocean-induced melting, and shear-margin processes that control the stability of the grounded ice that feeds the ice-ocean interfaces. Most of my work is carried out through satellite remote sensing techniques and through the collection of field data.
 

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Alley, K.E., Alley, R.B., Crawford, A.D., Ochwat, N., Wild, C., Marson, J., Snow, T., Muto, A., Pettit, E., Child, S., Truffer, M., Collao-Barrios, G., and Scambos, T. (2024). Evolution of sub-ice-shelf channels reveals changes in ocean-driven melt in West Antarctica. Journal of Glaciology, 70, e50, doi: 10.1017/jog.2024.20

Wåhlin, A., Alley, K.E., Begeman, C., Hegrenäs, Ö., Yuan, X., Graham, A., Hogan, K., Davis, P., Dotto, T.S., Eayrs, C., Hall, R., Holland, D., Kim, T-W., Larter, R., Ling, L., Muto, A., Pettit, E.C., Schmidt, B., Snow, T., Stedt, F., Washam, P., Wahlgren, S., Wild, C., Wellner, J., Zheng, Y., and Heywood, H. (2024). Swirls and scoops: New insights into how the ocean melts Antarctica’s ice shelves. Science Advances, 10(31), eadn9188, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adn9188.

Wild, C.T., Kachuck, S., Luckman, A., Alley, K.E., Sharp, M., Smith, H., Tyler, S., Kratt, C., Dotto, T., Price, D., Nicholls, K., Bevan, S., Collao-Barrios, G., Muto, A., Truffer, M., Scambos, T.A., Heywood, K., Pettit, E.C. (2024). Rift Propagation Signals the Last Act of the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf Despite Low Basal Melt Rates. Journal of Glaciology, 70, e21, doi: 10.1017/jog.2024.64.

Alley, K.E., Wild, C.T., Luckman, A., Scambos, T.A., Truffer, M., Pettit, E.C., Muto, A., Wallin, B., Klinger, M., Sutterley, T., Child, S.F., Hulen, C.*, Lenaerts, J.T.M., Maclennan, M., Keenan, E., and Dunmire, D. (2021). Two decades of dynamic change and progressive destabilization on the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf. The Cryosphere, 15, 5187-5203, doi:10.5194/tc-15-5187-2021.

Alley, K.E., Scambos, T.A., Alley, R.B., Holschuh, N. (2019). Troughs developed in ice-stream shear margins precondition ice shelves for ocean-driven break-up. Science Advances, 5(10), eeax2215, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aax2215.