Jonny Kingslake
Glaciologist
Associate Professor
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
j.kingslake@columbia.edu
@jkingslake
Juneau Ice Field, Alaska, 2018
58°50'00" N 134°16'10" W
Biography
I grew up in Reading UK, 20 minutes by train from London. I went to Chiltern Edge Secondary School (11-16yrs) and Henley Sixth Form College (17-18yrs).
After two years of working and backpacking I went to The University of York, UK, and did a Physics BSc. My final year project was on the nucleation of freezing in supercooled water, supervised by Dr Richard Keesing. We scattered a laser through droplets of supercooled water to observed freezing as it was initiated by the application of an electric field.
Between 2009 and 2013 I did PhD in glaciology in the Department of Geography, Sheffield University, supervised by Dr Felix Ng. My thesis was entitled 'Modeling ice-dammed lake drainage' (pdf). I used mathematical models to study how water flows beneath glacier (see research section).
Between 2013 and 2016, was a Glacier Geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Cambridge, UK. I was employed on a NERC-funded project led by Richard Hindmarsh. We used radar and mathematical models to study present-day and past ice flow in West Antarctica.
In March 2016 my wife and I moved from the UK and I started my current position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
My research is concerned with obtaining a better understanding of glacial processes to improve predictions of ice-sheet evolution.
I am part of the Polar Geophysics Group at Lamont and I help to advise students and post-docs using remote-sensing, mathematical modeling and fieldwork to better understand glacial processes.
Group values document
In summer 2020, several members of the Polar Geophysics Group (PGG) at Lamont developed a statement of values and codes of conduct, which can be accessed here. This document continues to evolve as people join and leave PGG.
Research Highlights
My research is focused on modelling and observing the flow of ice and water in ice sheets and glaciers.
Subglacial hydrology
During my PhD I studied the flow of water beneath glaciers and ice sheets through the development and analysis of mathematical models. I studied how ice-dammed lakes fill and drain beneath glaciers, showing how simple models can be used to predict approximately when lakes will drain, lakes can fill and drain chaotically and lakes affect the flow of glaciers through their impact on subglacial water pressures.
The Nye Attractor. This anaglyph, viewable with 3D glasses, shows the chaotic behavior of a model glacial lake. This is a section of an infinitely long curve called an attractor. It shows the evolution of a model glacial lake as it fills and drains, chaotically. The curve's distance along the vertical black axis is the flow out of the lake, its distance from the axis is the lake's depth and its rotation round the axis is time. It is named for the British glaciologist John Nye who devised the model in 1976. This anaglyph is designed to be viewed with 3D glasses. Kingslake, J. Chaotic dynamics of a glaciohydraulic model. J Glac. (61)227.
Glacier geophysics
My work at the British Antarctic Survey focused on using radar to constrain present and past ice flow in the Ronne Ice Shelf region of West Antarctica. We used a phase-sensitive radar system to measure an ice-dynamical phenomenon called the Raymond Effect.
We have used data from this radar to measure englacial ice flow and help to determine the history of ice flow in Antarctica (here)
Elizabeth Case subsequently used similar data to measure the compaction of snow (and “firn”) into glacial ice (published here), and we are using a newer version of the same radar to measure deformation around supraglacial lakes in Greenland as part of this NSF-funded project.
Ice-sheet history
In 2018 I co-led a paper presenting evidence that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet was smaller than it is today during the Holocene, in both the Weddell Sea and Ross Sea sectors. This work was done as part of a team of 10 scientists from 5 institutions across 3 countries. We hypothesized that readvance was caused by the delayed response of the lithosphere to unloading following the Last Glacial Maximum. The evidence for this came from ice-penetrating radar and radiocarbon found in subglacial sediments, and we examined the implications of and controls on the readvance using a continent-wide ice-sheet model. The image below comes from the paper. It shows maximum and minimum grounding line positions predicted by the model.
In a paper from 2016, we used phase-sensitive radar and GPS to infer vertical and horizontal ice flow fields throughout the thickness of Korff Ice Rise, West Antarctica. We used these englacial flow fields with radar observations of internal layers within the ice rise to show that the flow of his part of the ice sheet underwent a reorganization around 2-3 kyr ago. Continued research into the history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is bringing together geophysical and sedimentological data with ice-sheet modelling, to understand large-scale change during the last few thousand years.
Supraglacial hydrology
Though my PhD work was focused on lakes that drain subglacially (beneath glaciers and ice sheets), I was also interested in surface melt ponds and how they drain supraglacially (across the surface of the ice). Both subglacial and supraglacial drainage can involve flow paths that grow due to frictional melting from the flowing water, so some aspects of these two types of drainage are similar. I modeled the physics of supraglacial drainage, finding that melt ponds can drain stably or unstably over the surface of the ice. Which style of drainage occurs depends on factors like the size and shape of ponds and the input to the lake from its catchment. This is potentially significant because these factors may vary systematically as the climate changes, and drainage style fundamentally impacts the amount of water that is drained towards the ocean. This work is published here.
At Lamont I have been able to revisit supraglacial hydrology. Throughout 2016 I, along with Lamont colleagues, explored the supraglacial hydrology (i.e. hydrology that goes on on the surface of ice) of Antarctica. This has been exciting because only a few previous studies have looked at water moving across the surface of Antarctica, but we concluded that surface water flow potentially has an important role to play in the future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
In two papers (here and here) recently published in Nature, and summarized in the same issue (here), we showed that water has been moving long distances onto and across many Antarctic Ice Shelves for many decades (possibly much longer).
Our research is now focused on understanding how these drainage systems operate and how they develop under changing environmental conditions. Julian Spergel, a PhD candidate in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department here at Columbia, is leading this work. Julian’s first paper in the topic is published in the Journal of Glaciology (here).
This animation shows a series of images taken by NASA's LANDSAT7 satellite. Over a period of around 3 1/2 weeks this large pond on Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica, inundated an area of 55 square kilometers.
These observations of widespread supraglacial hydrology in Antarctica are interesting because as the continent warms, water could either move into areas where it can cause ice shelves to collapse, or it could evacuate water into the oceans as shown by one of our papers. The movie below, taken from a helicopter, shows a large water fall at the front of the Nansen Ice Shelf.
Publications
Peer-reviewed
Stevens, L.A., M. Nettles, J.L. Davis, T. T. Creyts, J. Kingslake, I.J. Hewitt, & A. Stubblefield, Tidewater-glacier response to supraglacial lake drainage. Nature Communications. in press
Kingslake, J, R. Skarbek, E. Case & C. McCarthy. (2022) Grain-size evolution controls the accumulation dependence of modeled firn thickness. The Cryosphere, 16, 3413–3430. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3413-2022
Hoffman A.O., K. Christianson, N. Holschuh, E. Case, J. Kingslake & R. Arthern. (2022) The impact of basal roughness on inland Thwaites Glacier sliding. Geophysical Research Letters, 49(14), e2021GL096564. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL096564
Jenson, A.J., J.M. Amundson, J. Kingslake & E. Hood. (2022) Long-period variability in ice-dammed glacier outburst floods due to evolving catchment geometry. The Cryosphere, 16, 333–347. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-333-2022
Case, E. and J. Kingslake (2022) Phase-sensitive radar as a tool for measuring firn compaction. Journal of Glaciology, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.83
Stevens, L., M. Nettles, J. Davis, T. Creyts, J. Kingslake, A. Ahlstrøm & T. Larsen (2022) Helheim Glacier diurnal velocity fluctuations driven by surface melt forcing. Journal of Glaciology, 1-13. https://doi.org/doi:10.1017/jog.2021.74
Stubblefield, A.G., T.T. Creyts, J. Kingslake, M.R. Siegfried & M. Spiegelman (2021) Surface Expression and Apparent Timing of Subglacial Lake Oscillations Controlled by Viscous Ice Flow. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(17), p.e2021GL094658.
Wearing, M.G., L. Stevens, P. Dutrieux & J. Kingslake (2021) Ice-shelf basal melt channels stabilized by secondary flow. Geophysical Research Letters, p.e2021GL094872.
Spergel, J.J., J. Kingslake, T. Creyts, M. van Wessem, & H.A. Fricker (2021) Surface meltwater drainage and ponding on Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica, 1973–2019. Journal of Glaciology, 1-14. https://doi.org/doi:10.1017/jog.2021.46
Warner, R.C., H.A. Fricker, S. Adusumilli, P.S. Arndt, J. Kingslake and J.J. Spergel (2021) Rapid formation of an ice doline on Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica. Geophysical Research Letters. 48, e2020GL091095. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091095
Fricker, H.A., P. Arndt, K.M. Brunt, R.T. Datta, Z. Fair, M.F. Jasinski, J. Kingslake, L.A. Magruder, M. Moussavi, A. Pope & J.J. Spergel (2021) ICESat-2 Meltwater Depth Estimates: Application to Surface Melt on Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(8), p.e2020GL090550. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL090550
Rennermalm, Å.K., R. Hock, F. Covi, J. Xiao, G. Corti, J. Kingslake, S.Z. Leidman, C. Miège,M. Macferrin, H. Machguth & E. Osterberg (2021) Shallow firn cores 1989–2019 in southwest Greenland's percolation zone reveal decreasing density and ice layer thickness after 2012. Journal of Glaciology, pp.1-12. doi:10.1017/jog.2021.102
Lai C.Y., J. Kingslake, M.G. Wearing, P-H. C. Chen, P. Gentine, H. Li, J. Spergel, M. van Wessem (2020) Vulnerability of Antarctica’s ice shelves to meltwater-driven fracture, Nature, 584(7822), 574–578. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091095
Wearing, M.G., J. Kingslake & M.G. Worster (2020) Can unconfined ice shelves provide buttressing via hoop stresses? Journal of Glaciology, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.101
Siegert, M.J., J. Kingslake, N. Ross, P.L. Whitehouse, J. Woodward, S.S. Jamieson, M.J. Bentley, K. Winter, M. Wearing, A.S. Hein, H. Jeofry (2019) Major ice sheet change in the Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica over the last 5,000 years. Reviews of Geophysics, 57, 1197– 1223. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019RG000651
Boghosian, A.L., M.J. Pratt, M.K. Becker, S.I. Cordero, T. Dhakal, J. Kingslake, C.D. Locke, K.J. Tinto, R.E. Bell (2019) Inside the ice shelf: using augmented reality to visualise 3D lidar and radar data of Antarctica. The Photogrammetric Record, 34(168), 346-364.(pdf)
Stubblefield, A.G., T. Creyts, J. Kingslake, M. Spiegelman (2019) Modeling oscillations in connected glacial lakes. Journal of Glaciology. 65(253), pp.745-758. https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.46 (pdf)
Wearing, M.G. and J. Kingslake (2019) Holocene Formation of Henry Ice Rise, West Antarctica, Inferred from Ice-Penetrating Radar. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. 124, 8, 2224-2240, doi.org/10.1029/2018JF004988
Brisbourne, A.M., C. Martin, A.M. Smith, A.F. Baird, J.M. Kendall, J. Kingslake (2019) Constraining Recent Ice Flow History at Korff Ice Rise, West Antarctica, Using Radar and Seismic Measurements of Ice Fabric. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 124(1), 175-194 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JF004776
Bell, R.E, A.F. Banwell, L.D. Trusel, J. Kingslake (2018) Antarctic surface hydrology and impacts on ice-sheet mass balance, Nature Climate Change, 8, 1044–1052 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0326-3
Shackleton, C., H. Patton, A. Hubbard, M. Winsborrow, J. Kingslake, M. Esteves, K. Andreassen and S.L. Greenwood, S.L. (2018) Subglacial water storage and drainage beneath the Fennoscandian and Barents Sea ice sheets. Quaternary Science Reviews, 201, 13–28, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.10.007 (pdf)
Kingslake, J., R.P. Scherer, T. Albrecht, J. Coenen, R.D. Powell, R. Reese, N.D. Stansell, S. Tulaczyk, M.G. Wearing & P.L. Whitehouse (2018) Extensive retreat and re-advance of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet during the Holocene. Nature, 558(7710), 430–434. (pdf)
Kingslake, J., J.C. Ely, I. Das, & R.E. Bell (2017) Widespread movement of meltwater onto and across Antarctic ice shelves. Nature, 544(7650), 349-352. (pdf)
Bell, R.E., W. Chu, J. Kingslake, I. Das, M. Tedesco, K.J. Tinto, C.J. Zappa, M. Frezzotti, A. Boghosian & W.S. Lee (2017) Antarctic ice shelf potentially stabilized by export of meltwater in surface river. Nature, 544(7650), 344-348. (pdf)
Livingstone, S.J. , W. Chu, J.C. Ely & J. Kingslake (2017) Palaeofluvial and subglacial channel networks beneath Humboldt Glacier, Greenland. Geology, G38860-1. (pdf)
Kingslake, J., C. Martín, R.J. Arthern, H.F.J. Corr & E.C. King. (2016) Ice-flow reorganization in West Antarctica 2.5 kyr ago dated using radar-derived englacial flow velocities. Geophys. Res. Lett. 43, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL070278. (pdf)
Matsuoka, K. & 19 others (including J. Kingslake) (2015) Antarctic ice rises and rumples: their properties and significance for ice-sheet dynamics and evolution. Earth Sci. Rev., 150, 724-745. (pdf)
Evatt, W.E, D. Abrahams, M. Heil, C. Mayer, J. Kingslake, S.L. Mitchell, A.C. Fowler & C.D. Clark (2015) Glacial melt under a porous debris layer. J. Glaciol., 61(229), 825-836. (pdf)
Kingslake, J. (2015) Chaotic dynamics of a glaciohydraulic model. J. Glaciol., 61(227), 493. (pdf)
Kingslake, J., F. Ng & A. Sole (2015) Modelling channelized surface drainage of supraglacial lakes. J. Glaciol., 61(225), 185-199. (pdf)
Kingslake, J., R.C.H. Hindmarsh, G. Aðalgeirsdóttir, H. Conway, H.F.J. Corr, F. Gillet-Chaulet, C. Martín, E.C. King, R. Mulvaney & H.D. Pritchard. (2014) Full-depth englacial vertical ice-sheet velocities measured using phase-sensitive radar. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf., 119, 2604–2618. (pdf)
Livingstone, S.J., C.D. Clark, J. Woodward & J. Kingslake (2013) Potential subglacial lake locations and meltwater drainage pathways beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Cryosphere, 7(6), 1721-1740. (pdf)
Siegert, M., N. Ross, H.F.J. Corr, J. Kingslake & R.C.H. Hindmarsh (2013) Late Holocene ice-flow reconfiguration in the Weddell Sea sector of West Antarctica. Quat. Sci. Rev., 78, 98-107. (pdf)
Kingslake, J. and F. Ng (2013) Quantifying the predictability of the timing of jökulhlaups from Merzbacher Lake, Kyrgyzstan. J. Glaciol., 59(217), 805-818. (pdf)
Kingslake, J. and F. Ng (2013) Modelling the coupling of flood discharge with glacier flow during jökulhlaups. Ann. Glaciol., 54(63), 25-31. (pdf)
Unreviewed reports
Kingslake, J., L D. Trusel, A. Banwell, R. E. Bell, I. Das, R. M. DeConto, M. Tedesco, J. T. M. Lenaerts, C. Schoof.
Report on Antarctic surface hydrology workshop, LDEO, 2018. USAP-DC, https://doi.org/10.15784/601170
Datasets
Kingslake, J. "Polarimetric phase sensitive radar from Korff Ice Rise, West Antarctica, 2014" (2018) Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/fc7e78d8-ae93-43cc-ade7-181b3af17a3e
Kingslake, J. “Dual-frequency Global Positioning System measurements of snow-stake positions at ice divides in the Ronne Ice Shelf region.” (2015) Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/f8e3f18f-8c2e-4f2d-a2fb-794a48a1c26c
Kingslake, J. “Phase-sensitive radar measurements near ice divides on ice rises in the Ronne Ice Shelf region.” Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/f27e42e6-8abf-4970-81c8-270529f8295f
Kingslake, J. “Ground-based ice-penetrating radar surveys of ice rises in the Ronne Ice Shelf region” Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/e7f0dff3-bd30-482a-939b-61bb2f2c1e57
Fieldwork
Field observations are an essential part of my research. I have conducted fieldwork in Southern Norway, Svalbard, Greenland, Alaska and Antarctica.
Antarctica, 2013-14, 2014-15
During two austral summers I spent two months traveling across the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in a team of two (a mountaineer and I), conducting measurements of the ice flow using GPS and ice-penetrating radar.
During my first Antarctic field season, my field safety expert, Iain Rudkin, was also an amazing photographer. See some of Iain's photography from Antarctica and elsewhere here. Even after 12+ hours on a snow mobile, Iain somehow found the energy to get out of the tent and capture whatever nice clouds (not scenery as we were in the flat-white) that were outside. When we got back I put his timelapse photography together with some videos of my own and arranged them over a composition by Steve Massey, written while at the British research base, Rothera:
Video and time-lapse from a skidoo traverse of the Ronne Ice Shelf conducted by the British Antarctic Survey during the 2013/14 Austral Summer. Time-lapse by Iain Rudkin. Music is "Jenny Island" - an unfinished composition by Steve Massey freezabox.com. Video footage and compilation editing by Jonny Kingslake - a scientist at the British Antarctic Survey.
Greenland, 2017
In April/May 2017 I spent four weeks traversing across the Greenland Ice Sheet as part of an NSF-funded project to investigate refreezing of meltwater in snow and firn. The project is led by Asa Rennermalm, Regine Hock and Marco Tedesco. More details soon. Meanwhile, here are some photos and a movie showing some pretty windy conditions that we encountered on the ice sheet.
Windy condition on the Greenland Ice Sheet, May, 2017,
Alaska, 2018
In Summer 2018, funded by a Lenfest Junior Faculty Development Grant, Elizabeth Case and I conducted 2 weeks of fieldwork on the Juneau Icefield. This was in collaboration with the Juneau Icefield Research Program, who run a yearly six-week ski traverse of the ice field. We took a helicopter flight into the program’s camp 18, reproduced here as a 3D model recreated by Martin Pratt from video footage we obtained using a DJI drone.
View from the helicopter on the way to camp 18, Juneau Ice Field
Camp 18 is on a nunatak surrounded by the most amazing ice falls which produce multiple sets of ogives, captured here from a drone in 4k:
From camp 18 we moved up to the ice divide between ice flowing north into Canada and ice flowing south in the US. We used a phase-sensitive radar to conduct a grid of point, aiming to measure vertical englacial strain rates (including firn compaction) and we used a shallow coring system to extract around 80 m of ice core from 6 locations around the ice divide.
We put some of the drone footage together in a first cut here:
Juneau Ice Field, Summer 2018.
Outreach
Girls in STEM event at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum
There are many opportunities for outreach at Lamont, with regular outreach events including the Women in STEM event at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum, the Earth-Sun Day at the American Museum of Natural History, Hudson River Sailing Community Sailing Club and Lycée Français de New York school. The biggest outreach event of the year for everyone at LDEO is Open House.
During 2020, when in-person outreach was not possible, I have given several lectures in the “EI Live” series. One was about my fieldwork in Antarctica (link), one was about our fieldwork in Alaska (link), and a slightly more advanced lecture was about heat flow in ice sheets (link).
At Open House 2018 we run a range of ice-related outreach activities including a large-scale glacier goo demonstration, where everyone can get in and play with the goo, an Augmented Reality headset that allows people to manipulate a model of the Himalayas, a Google Earth tour with 3D mouse and a glacier-goo feature-tracking demonstration.
A quick look round our science outreach exhibits on ice at Lamont-Doherty's open house this year. We had a large-scale glacier goo, Augmented Reality with the Microspft Hololens, a google Earth tour with 3D mouse, and a glacier-goo feature-tracking demo.
Travel
Recent travels include backpacking around the Philippines and a road trip across the United States. Our route across the US was approximately this. Below are some photos from some recent trips.
