The purpose of this Proglacial Lakes Working Group is to bring together scientists from across the UK and beyond to promote collaborative research, including collaborative papers and research grant applications, on these lakes.
Proglacial lakes, including both ice-contact lakes that are situated along glacier and ice sheet margins, and ice-distal lakes that are detached from ice-margins and fed by glacial meltwater, are the focus of study for a broad spectrum of research disciplines including glaciology, geomorphology, sedimentology, geochronological studies, biomarker- and geochemical- based palaeoenvironmental studies, numerical modelling and geoengineering.
Scientific themes that we wish to explore include (but are not limited to):
Glacial lakes in the Quaternary record
Quaternary and modern glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs)
Glacial lake basins as sediment archives, e.g. of palaeoenvironmental change, including glacial dynamics
Creation and application of varve chronologies from glacial lake sediments
The role of proglacial lakes in ice sheet and glacier behaviour
The role of proglacial lakes in downstream landscape stability and water quality
Engineering geology of glacial lake sediments and landforms
Character and behaviour of, and processes in, glacial lakes
Numerical modelling of ice-lake interactions
Links between these themes.
We are keen to develop collaborations between Quaternary researchers working primarily on reconstruction and glaciologists and hydrologists working on modern glacial systems, geo-engineers working in glacial environments or in palaeoglacial lake terrains, and numerical modellers interested in such lakes.
If you are interested in the being involved in the working group, please email qraplwg@gmail.com