Inverse Magnetic Modelling of Glacier Activity Using Suspended Sediments

MAGNET seeks to create a model that is able to quantify glacier activity over time periods of thousands of years allowing us to produce accurate estimates of glacier erosion and sediment yield. This will give us a unique possibility to investigate how a g lacier responds to changing climate conditions during a retreat as well as an advance, and to what degree it is possible to reconstruct such adjustments. Testing the validity of glacier reconstructions is important because they constitute an invaluable so urce for past climate dynamics, and errors associated with this method would have significant implications. In order to reach these objectives we will couple the state-of-the-art knowledge of magnetism, geology and glaciology, using world leading labora tory facilities to measure the signatures of glacial sediments. This will enable us to isolate a true glacier signal from other sediments with a confidence estimates. Meeting the objectives issued in MAGNET we need to be able to connect the correct sedime nt qualities with the corresponding glacier action. Failing to do so could imply that our results may be flawed. The magnetic imprint, however, of different sedimentary components such as minerals, grain size, and concentration can be detected with high p recision. We believe that by creating an inverse model built on a multi-disciplinary approach we will be able to deliver a tool that can be adapted in general to evaluate glacier activity where similar systems with glacier-fed lakes are found. This wi ll significantly improve the paleoclimatic records obtained from such sources and provide new opportunities for expanding our knowledge of glaciers and their natural variability.