-
GEOB 408: Snow and Ice Processes
Lectures
MWF 12-1 pmGeography room 214
Instructor
Michele Koppes
Office: Geography Room 141
Phone: 604.822.4896
Email: koppes (at) geog (dot) ubc (dot) ca
Office hours: Wednesdays 1-2 or by appointment
Syllabus
The course syllabus is your primary reference for all course evaluations, policies, dates and expectations for this course.
Textbook
The textbook assigned for this course is:
Glaciers and Glaciation by
D.
Benn
and
D.J.A.
Evans,
2010
(2nd
edition),
available
at
the
UBC
bookstore
by
the
end
of
the
2nd
week
of
term.
Additional useful references for the course include:
The Avalanche Handbook
- D.
McClung and P. Shaerer
The Physics of Glaciers (4th
Ed.) - K. Cuffey and W.S.B. Paterson
Course Evaluation
Final marks for this course will be assessed based on: - Problem assignments (25%)
- Midterm exam, on November
18 (25%)
- Research proposal (5%), due October 28
- Research paper (25%), due December 2
- Oral presentation of research findings (10%)
- Class participation (10%)
A range of topics for the research paper and proposal can be found here.
A series of potential questions that will be on the midterm exam can be found here. You may want to find a study buddy or two to go through the questions and help you prepare for the midterm exam.
Useful links
Global glacier changes: facts and figures from the UN Environment ProgramThe state and evolution of Canada’s glaciers
A snow flake primer - Ken Libbrecht, Caltech
Variegated Glacier surge video
UW Blue Glacier research video
Effect of glaciers on geology of North America
Glacier Bay video
Timelapse of Columbia Glacier
350 days in the life of Mendenhall Glacier
Glacier erosion video
Lecture
materials
The course will cover the
following topics:
The Geography of the Cryosphere
The physics of ice, albedo
Mass balance of glaciers, Energy balance
Snow formation & metamorphism
Glacier dynamics and flow
Glacier sliding
Modeling glacier melt and glacier runoff
download Hock 1999 paper here
Glacier catchment hydrology
Avalanche formation & forecasting
Glacier advance/retreat
Nov. 21-Dec. 2 - Research presentations
The presentations are your chance to share what you have found with the class. The presentations should be no longer than 7 minutes, with 3 minutes allotted for questions. Your presentation should include: your motivation, a statement of the problem/ hypothesis, and what you discovered. A couple of key figures from the literature or photos are often helpful. If you plan to use slides, save in Powerpoint and/or as a pdf, keep to a 5-slide maximum and bring your slides on a usb drive.
The presentations will be evaluated according to the following criteria.
The schedule of presentations is as follows:
Mon 11/21 - Hilary, Jacqueline, Sean M, Melissa, Sarah
Wed 11/23 - Lucy, Jordan, Peter, Cameron, Jacob
Fri 11/25 - Spencer, Ian, Tiffany, Christine, Cassandra
Mon 11/28 - Nikola, Jenny, Pamela, Laurent, Tom
Wed 11/30 - Sean C., Monika, Allina, Alex, Ryan
Fri 12/2 - Lauren, Yong Teng, Suman, Conrad
It is my hope that lectures will be dynamic and may deviate off topic according to the interests of the class. For that reason, any lecture notes will be posted at the end of the week, to be used as a study guide only. There are several guest lecturers in this course, who may or may not make their lecture notes available, so be sure to take your own notes in class!
The Geography of the Cryosphere
The physics of ice, albedo
Mass balance of glaciers, Energy balance
Snow formation & metamorphism
Glacier dynamics and flow
Glacier sliding
Modeling glacier melt and glacier runoff
download Hock 1999 paper here
Glacier catchment hydrology
Avalanche formation & forecasting
Glacier advance/retreat
Nov. 21-Dec. 2 - Research presentations
The presentations are your chance to share what you have found with the class. The presentations should be no longer than 7 minutes, with 3 minutes allotted for questions. Your presentation should include: your motivation, a statement of the problem/ hypothesis, and what you discovered. A couple of key figures from the literature or photos are often helpful. If you plan to use slides, save in Powerpoint and/or as a pdf, keep to a 5-slide maximum and bring your slides on a usb drive.
The presentations will be evaluated according to the following criteria.
The schedule of presentations is as follows:
Mon 11/21 - Hilary, Jacqueline, Sean M, Melissa, Sarah
Wed 11/23 - Lucy, Jordan, Peter, Cameron, Jacob
Fri 11/25 - Spencer, Ian, Tiffany, Christine, Cassandra
Mon 11/28 - Nikola, Jenny, Pamela, Laurent, Tom
Wed 11/30 - Sean C., Monika, Allina, Alex, Ryan
Fri 12/2 - Lauren, Yong Teng, Suman, Conrad
It is my hope that lectures will be dynamic and may deviate off topic according to the interests of the class. For that reason, any lecture notes will be posted at the end of the week, to be used as a study guide only. There are several guest lecturers in this course, who may or may not make their lecture notes available, so be sure to take your own notes in class!
Problem Assignments
Problem assignments will be posted
here
for download as they are covered in lecture. Some assignments will form
the basis of discussion in lecture on Fridays; others will be set as
homework, due the following Wednesday in class
- #1:
Changes in the cryosphere - due
9/14
- #2: Thermal properties of ice - due 9/26
- #3: Surface energy
balance - due 10/5
- #4: Glacier flow - due 10/21
- Group challenge:
glacier hydrology
Writing tips for tests and assignments
Please read this list of tips detailing
techniques
to improve scientific writing for homework, research papers and exams.
A little note about plagiarism and course policies on individual work on your assignments and research papers.