Numerical simulations of drumlin formation

J. S. Fannon, A. C. Fowler, I. R. Moyles

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We summarize the present form of the instability theory for drumlin formation, which describes the coupled subglacial flow of ice, water and sediment. This model has evolved over the last 20 years, and is now at the point where it can predict instabilities corresponding to ribbed moraine, drumlins and mega-scale glacial lineations, but efforts to provide numerical solutions of the model have been limited. The present summary adds some slight nuances to previously published versions of the theory, notably concerning the constitutive description of the subglacial water film and its flow. A new numerical method is devised to solve the model, and we show that it can be solved for realistic values of most of the parameters, with the exception of that corresponding to the water film thickness. We show that evolved bedforms can be three-dimensional and of the correct sizes, and we explore to some extent the variation of the solutions with the model's parameters.

Original languageEnglish
Article number20170220
Pages (from-to)20170220
JournalProceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
Volume473
Issue number2204
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2017

Keywords

  • Drumlins
  • Instability
  • Mega-scale glacial lineations
  • Ribbed moraine

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