Research on Glaciers Overview of my research |
Overview
Research history
The Low-temperature Laboratory
Upon completion of the NERC studentship in 1987 I moved to the Department of Geography at Keele University, and continued to develop the work that was started with the PhD. The main results of work stemming more or less directly from the PhD were written up in a series of papers appearing between 1987 and 1994. Key papers from this period include:
Sugden, D.E., Knight, P.G., Livesey, N., Souchez, R., Lorrain, R., Tison, J-L and Jouzel, J. (1987) Evidence for two zones of debris entrainment beneath the Greenland ice sheet. NATURE Vol.328 no.6127 pp.238-241.
Knight, P.G. (1988) The basal ice and debris sequence at the margin of an equatorial ice cap; El Cotopaxi, Ecuador. GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER Vol.70A No.1 pp.9-13.
Knight, P.G. (1989) Stacking of basal debris layers without bulk freezing-on: isotopic evidence from West Greenland. JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY Vol.35 No.120, pp. 214-216. Click here for abstract.
Knight, P.G. (1992) Ice deformation very close to the ice-sheet margin in West Greenland. JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY Vol. 38 no.128 pp3-8
Knight, P.G. (1994) Two-facies interpretation of the basal layer of the Greenland ice sheet contributes to a unified model of basal ice formation. GEOLOGY 22 (11), 971-974. Click here for Abstract
Knight, P.G. (1994) Ice flow around large obstacles as indicated by
basal ice exposed at the margin of the Greenland ice sheet. (with D.E.
Sugden and C.Minty) JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY 40 (135), 359-367.
Knight, P.G. and Knight, D.A. (1999) Experimental observations of subglacial
debris entrainment into the vein network of polycrystalline ice. GLACIAL
GEOLOGY AND GEOMORPHOLOGY http://boris.qub.ac.uk/ggg/papers/full/1999/rp051999/rp05.html
Click here for abstract
Knight, P.G., Patterson, C.J., Waller, R.I., Jones, A.P. and Robinson, Z.P. (2000) Preservation of basal-ice sediment texture in ice sheet moraines. QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS 19 (13), 1255-1258.In 2000, I started to develop the "final stage" of my long-term research programme, looking at how basal ice signatures can be identified in formerly glaciated areas such as the UK, and possibly used to identify former subglacial conditions. This involves interests in the moraines marking the southern margin of the former Laurentide ice sheet (working in collaboration with Carrie Patterson) and in the glacial landforms of the English Lake District, as well as continuing work in Greenland with Richard Waller and postgraduate student Will Adam.
read whole paper read abstractKnight, P.G., Waller, R.I., Patterson, C.J., Jones, A.P. and Robinson, Z.P. (2000) Glacier advance, ice-marginal lakes and routing of meltwater and sediment: Russell Glacier, Greenland. JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY 46 (154), 423-426.
read abstractKnight, P. G., Patterson, C. J., and Waller, R. I. (2001) Changes in sediment routing as a consequence of ice-sheet advance, Russell Glacier, Greenland. EOS, TRANS. AGU, 82 (47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract. read abstract
Knight, P.G., Waller, R.I., Patterson, C.J., Jones, A.P. and Robinson, Z.P. (2002) Discharge of debris from ice at the margin of the Greenland ice sheet. JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY 48 (161), 192-198. read abstract
This work saw it's first published output with:
Adam, W.G. and Knight, P.G. (2003) Identification of basal layer debris in ice-marginal moraines, Russell Glacier,West Greenland. QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS. (in press) read paper (.pdf file)At the same time, I continued to work on the problem of understanding basal ice formation at present day ice margins, especially at my longstanding field site in Greenland.
In 2003 I was awarded a new grant from the Leverhulme Trust to further develop my basal ice work. The new project involved a combination of field and laboratory work starting with a visit to southern Iceland in summer 2003 and funding Debbie Knight to work as a postdoctoral research assistant in the low-temperature laboratory. First results of this work were presented in Brussels in 2004, and there is more information about this project here. Publications based on this work in the Low-temperature laboratory include:
Knight, P.G. and Knight D.A. (2005) Laboratory observations of debris-bearing ice facies frozen from supercooled water. JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGYKnight, P.G. and Knight D.A. (2005) Laboratory observations of ice formation and debris entrainment by freezing turbid supercooled water. In Knight, P.G. (ed.) GLACIER SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE (Blackwell, Oxford).
2003-7: Physical Geography at Keele underwent further restructuring, including the appointments of Richard Waller and Zoe Robinson, with whom I was already collaborating, and the organisation of our research under the banner of "Subglacial and Ice Marginal Processes, Landforms and Environments" (SIMPLE) within the School of Physical and Geographical Sciences. Simon Cook was appointed to a PhD studentship and we continued to work in Iceland looking at Glaciohydraulic Supercooling. Publications arising from this work included:
Knight, P.G. and Cook, S.J. (2008) Glaciohydraulic Supercooling. PROGRESS IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 32 (1), 65-71.
Cook, S.J., Knight, P.G., Waller, R.I., Robinson, Z.P. and Adam, W.G. (2007) The geography of basal ice and its relationship to glaciohydraulic supercooling: Svínafellsjökull, southeast Iceland. QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS 26 (19-21) 2309-2315.
2008-11: My research at this point was diversifying. I was continuing to pursue the "third stage" of my basal ice work, looking at UK-based glacial landscapes that preserved a signal of former glaciation. This included continuing collaboration with Simon Cook and Richard Waller, and some work with PhD student Aiden Parkes. At the same time I had been looking increasingly at links between glaciology (and geography more generally) and art, collaborating with artist Miriam Burke. I was also by this time getting more involved in pedagogic research, and after my major book project "Glacier Science and Environmental Change" I was also being called upon increasingly to contribute to review works such as substantial encyclopedia entries, and had embarked on a new book-writing project: "Glacier" for Reaktion books.
There is a tradition of laboratory experimentation in glaciology, but it has been confined largely to research in (i) ice physics and chemistry and (ii) simulation of flow and erosion processes. The programme of research being developed at Keele is unusual in that it aims to co-ordinate theoretical and empirical models through the experimental testing of model elements that are inaccessible in the field and cannot rigorously be tested in any other way.
Publications and presenations based on work in the low-temperature laboratory include
Knight, P.G. and Knight, D.A. (1994) Glacier sliding, regelation water flow, and development of basal ice. JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY 40 (136), 600-601. Click here for extractsKnight, P.G. and Knight, D.A. (1999) Experimental observations of subglacial debris entrainment into the vein network of polycrystalline ice. GLACIAL GEOLOGY AND GEOMORPHOLOGY
Full paper: http://boris.qub.ac.uk/ggg/papers/full/1999/rp051999/rp05.html
Abstract: click here for abstractKnight, P.G. and Knight, D.A. (2004) Field observations and laboratory simulations of basal ice formed by freezing of supercooled subglacial water. Invited contribution to AMICS (Antarctic ice-sheet dynamics and climatic change: Modelling and Ice Composition Studies) workshop Dynamic Interaction between the Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Subglacial Environment, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, April 2004. Sponsored by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO). Details here
Knight, P.G. and Knight D.A. (2005) Laboratory observations of debris-bearing ice facies frozen from supercooled water. JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
Knight, P.G. and Knight D.A. (2005) Laboratory observations of ice formation and debris entrainment by freezing turbid supercooled water. In Knight, P.G. (ed.) GLACIER SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE (Blackwell, Oxford).