Investigating differences in the style of glaciation between the Eastern Himalaya and Western Norway to train (semi-)automated geomorphological mapping methods
This Master's project was designed for Silje Slettemoen who started the Master's program in Earth sciences, UiB, spring of 2025. The Master's project is given by the research group Quaternary geology & paleo climate.
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Project description
Glaciers advance and recede in response to climate change and record these changes by building distinctive sedimentary landforms including ice-marginal moraines. In the Eastern Himalaya, glacier change is influenced by variability of the Indian Summer Monsoon and by investigating the timing and style of Late Quaternary glaciation in this region we can discover how the monsoon has varied in the past and the dynamic response of Himalayan glaciers to climate change (Saha et al., 2019). However, mapping glacial geomorphology over such large areas is challenging in the field, and time consuming and dependent on the availability of high-resolution data to carry out remotely. This project will compare the ability to map glacial geomorphology remotely between a tectonically young mountain range, in the Bhutan Himalaya, and a tectonically old mountain range in Western Norway. In both study areas, mapping will be carried out manually from freely available satellite imagery and data and evaluated against existing mapping from neighbouring areas and field observations in Western Norway (e.g., Hornsey et al., 2022; Nesje and Dahl, 1993). The manually mapped landforms will be used as a training dataset to develop (semi-)automated machine learning methods with which to test the possibility to carry out similar mapping at a much larger spatial scale.
Research questions:
- How complete and well preserved are moraine sequences in Bhutan compared to those in Western Norway?
- How can regional mapping of ice-marginal moraines be enhanced using machine learning methods to improve both the coverage and accuracy of manual mapping?
- Can glacial geomorphological mapping be used to reveal variability in the style of glaciation within a region that may result despite similar climatic forcing?
Proposed course plan during the master's degree (60 ECTS)
贬酶蝉迟蝉别尘别蝉迟别谤:
GEOV222 Palaeoclimatology (10 sp)
GEOV230 Glacial geology and geomorphology (10 sp)
GEOV205 Geographical Information Systems: Theory and Practice (10 sp)
痴氓谤蝉别尘别蝉迟别谤:
GEOV329 Quaternary geochronology (10 sp)
GEOV316 Practical Skills in Remote Sensing and Spatial analysis (10 sp)
GEOV225 Quaternary geology and palaeoclimate field course (10 sp)
Prerequisites
The project will use GIS and scripted programming languages such as Python for data analysis and remote mapping. Familiarity with these methods is useful but not essential, as training and ongoing support will be provided.
Field-, lab- and analysis work
Fieldwork in western Norway. Potentially lab work in CosmoLab.