Modeling of the Greenland Glacial Isostatic Adjustment in Response to Projected Ice Mass Loss in the Coming Centuries

Since the last glacial maximum (LGM) ~20,000 years ago the Earth has deformed in response to the melting of large ice sheets. This deformation is known as glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). The GIA is critical to understanding the rate of uplift of the rockbed which contributes to sea-level changes, flexure response of surrounding rockbed, and understanding the rheology of the mantle. This project contributes to current knowledge of how GIA uplift will change going into the future. Greenland has had significant ice mass loss since 2003 and ongoing GIA deformation since LGM. Slepian functions and GRACE gravity data were used to calculate the ice mass loss in Greenland to construct a forward model of the GIA for Greenland based on the next 100 years of ice loss. This is important for finding when the GIA signal will have a comparable value to GIA from earlier deglaciation periods.