Marianne Karplus
University of Texas at El Paso, TX·Earth & Environmental Science
Glaciers high in the Himalaya feed many of Asia's major rivers and also grind down the mountains, supplying sediment downstream. As the climate warms, these glaciers are changing, which threatens the water supply of people living downstream and creates a sudden hazard: a glacial lake outburst flood, which happens when the natural dam holding back a glacial lake gives way and releases a surge of water.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Physics
- Topics
glaciers
Himalaya
Bhutan
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Measure ice thickness, subglacial sediments, and hydrologic processes in the Lunana glaciers of Bhutan using radar and seismic surveys.
- Assess the stability of glacial moraine dams and the abundance and state of permafrost and debris-covered ice in the Lunana region, to better understand glacial lake outburst flood hazards.
- Test whether seismic monitoring can track sediment transport and river levels downstream of the Lunana glaciers along the Pho Chu River Valley, including potential for flood early warning.
- Build geoscience research and field skills capacity among Bhutan-based scientists through collaborative fieldwork in the Himalaya.
More about the research
This project asks how the glacial landscape of Bhutan is changing and whether ground-based geophysics can track those changes and warn of floods.
Why it matters
Communities along Himalayan rivers depend on glacier-fed water and are exposed to glacial lake outburst floods. Measuring ice thickness, moraine dam stability, and permafrost in Bhutan's Lunana region, and testing seismic monitoring of river levels and sediment transport, could improve hazard assessment and potentially contribute to flood early warning, while strengthening geoscience training in Bhutan.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Katharine Huntington
University of Washington, WA·Earth & Environmental Science
Determine the source, depositional age and grain-size distribution of megaflood deposits along the Yarlung-Siang-Brahmaputra river system in the eastern Himalaya, using field observations and laboratory analytical tools.
William Armstrong
Appalachian State University, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
Quantify ice lost through iceberg calving and underwater melt at three lake-terminating glaciers of the Juneau Icefield, using ground-based radar, GPS and satellite measurements of ice thickness and speed.
Eric Klein
University of Alaska Anchorage, AK·Earth & Environmental Science·Early-career
Measure water-cycle components in permafrost watersheds in High Arctic Greenland that range from heavily glaciated to glacier-free, to track how sources of river water shift as glaciers shrink.
The school
University of Texas at El Paso: 4 labs on PI Pages, $158M a year on research, 130 research doctorates a year.
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