Research

I co-led a global synthesis of over 400 published glacial erosion rates and thousands of fluvial erosion rates, revealing that, on average, glaciers erode an order of magnitude faster than rivers (0.51 vs. 0.067 mm/yr). Our study also offered new evidence that recontextualized the Sadler effect, the apparent inverse relationship between geological rates and measurement timescale. This work, collaboratively led by myself, Bailey Nordin, and Profs. Brenhin Keller and Marisa Palucis, stemmed from the EARS 272 graduate seminar at Dartmouth.

J. A. Wilner, B. J. Nordin, A. Getraer, R. M. Gregoire, M. Krishna, J. Li, D. J. Pickell, E. R. Rogers, K. T. McDannell, M. C. Palucis, and C. B. Keller (2024). Limits to timescale dependence in erosion rates: Quantifying glacial and fluvial erosion across timescales, Science Advances.

Link to paper

For the final chapter of my Ph.D., I tested the prevailing assumption that faster glaciers are more effective erosive agents by comparing multidecadal timeseries of glacier velocity from ITS_LIVE with remotely sensed suspended sediment concentration (SSC) of associated proglacial rivers, for all the world's 270,000+ glaciers -- an unprecedented scale for this line of inquiry.

I ran a large suite of bespoke glacier models capturing a diverse climatic parameter space to determine which combination of paleo-temperature, paleo-precipitation, and paleo-lapse rate reproduce glaciers that match observed moraine extents observed at Páramo de Frontino, Colombia during our December 2023 fieldwork.

Paper to be submitted for publication in 2026

Using the Ice-sheet and Sea-level System Model (ISSM), I simulated 200 years of evolution for 10 different Antarctic ice shelves under four different mathematical representations of calving. I found that the von Mises and eigencalving laws are the most physically realistic choices for these ice shelves, important constraints for glaciologists modeling the evolution and climate vulnerability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

J. A. Wilner, M. Morlighem, and G. Cheng (2023). Evaluation of four calving laws for Antarctic ice shelves, The Cryosphere.

Link to paper

By running a very large suite of simplified 18,000 glacier models with each with a unique combination of topo-climatic parameters, I found that topogaphy explains approximately 16% of variability in glacier length in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Colombia, with climate explaining the rest. This work shows quantitatively that topography may be a non-negligible factor in the evolution of some glaciers as the climate warms.

J. A. Wilner, A. M. Doughty, M. A. Kelly, and M. Morlighem (2025). Disentangling topographic and climatic controls on glacier length: A case study in the tropical Colombian Andes, Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Link to paper

My master's work in planetary geoscience coupled spectroscopic measurements from the Dawn spacecraft with finite element modeling in COMSOL Multiphysics to assess (1) whether putative cryovolcanic domes on Ceres are spectroscopically and mineralogically distinct from their surroundings, and (2) whether cryomagma chamber pressurization can plausibly result in eruptions on Ceres.