| dc.description.abstract | Small valley glaciers respond fast to climate changes, but are also highly affected by short-term fluctuations in local precipitation and temperature. The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to use Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to estimate the volume of Styggedalsbreen through mapping of the bottom topography and modelling of the glacier thickness. Styggedalsbreen has a surface area of ~1.85 km² and is located in a part of Jotunheimen called Hurrungane. A total of 3 field excursions were carried out in the period August 2013-March 2014; two in August/September and one in March. A GPR system from Malå geoscience was used to survey more than 60 profiles in total, both north-south and east-west. Because of a combination of equipment failure and poor data quality, of these 60 profiles, only 11 were used in the final model to calculate a volume estimate. Ten of these profiles were made in March 2014 using a 50 MHz rough terrain antenna (RTA), while one was made in September 2013 with a 100 MHz RTA. After the data collection was complete, processing software like RadExplorer and Reflex2D-Quick (R2DQ) was used to process and interpret the profiles and determine the glacier thickness. Geographic information system (GIS) software was used to plot the profiles, interpolate data for areas where no measurements were done, and calculate the volume estimate. The final ice thickness model (figure) presents an estimated volume of 0.053 km3 ± 15 %, a maximum depth of 98.7 ± 8 m, a mean ice depth of 26.8 ± 8 m, and a subglacial U-shaped bed topography typical for glacier eroded alleys. | nb_NO |
