An Undergraduate Laboratory Exercise Introducing Form-Development Modeling in Glacial Geomorphology

Abstract

Most undergraduate-level laboratory exercises in glacial geomorphology focus on landform identification and morphometry. Although these are critical building blocks for undergraduate education, it is important that students also gain insight into more current work in the discipline. In an undergraduate geomorphology course formerly taught by the authors at Kent State University, students completed a glacial-geomorphology exercise that includes some exposure to the ideas and approaches that underlie geomorphic-process modeling and landform development. Using data presented in recent papers describing flow and form-development modeling for glacial-valley cross sections, students determine the pattern of erosion across a section of the Athabasca Glacier. By applying this pattern of erosion they determine what the new valley cross profile might look like after a given time lapse, and estimate a new ice-surface position. The exercise provides students with exposure to some basic modeling ideas and allows them ...