INSTAAR: W. Tad Pfeffer

Fellow of INSTAAR; Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, Univ. of Colorado at Boulder.

PhD, University of Washington, 1987.

Tad.Pfeffer@Colorado.EDU
(303) 492-3480

INSTAAR Directorate Members

Specialty: Glaciology, continuum mechanics, heat transfer.

Research Interests: My research interests are broadly focussed on modern glacier physics, including ice mechanics and glacier dynamics, heat and mass transfer in snow and ice, atmosphere/glacier and ocean/glacier interactions. My approaches to these problems include field work in Alaska, Greenland, and the Canadian Arctic, experimental laboratory work, and mathematical and numerical modeling. Applications of this work include estimates of future sea-level change, analysis and modeling of iceberg calving dynamics of tidewater glaciers and ice streams, determination of the internal velocity field in ice, and reconstruction of Late Wisconsin advances of ice in the Hudson Strait region.

Outstanding Award: 1997 American Geophysical Union Editor's Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for JGR-Solid Earth.

Selected Publications:

Owen, L. A., Thackray, G., Anderson, R. S., Briner, J., Kaufman, D., Roe, G., Pfeffer, W., and Yi, C., 2009: Integrated research on mountain glaciers: Current status, priorities and future prospects. Geomorphology, 103 (2): 158-171.
Pfeffer, W. T., Harper, J. T., and O’Neel, S., 2008: Kinematic constraints on glacier contributions to 21st-century sea-level rise. Science, 321(5894): 1340-1343.
Pfeffer, W. T., 2007: The Opening of a New Landscape: Columbia Glacier at Mid-Retreat. American Geophysical Union.
Meier, M. F., Dyurgerov, M. B., Rick, U. K., O’Neel, S., Pfeffer, W. T., Anderson, R. S., Anderson, S. P., and Glazovsky, A. F., 2007: Glaciers dominate eustatic sea-level rise in the 21st century. Science, 317 (5841): 1064-1067.
Pfeffer, W. T., 2007: A simple mechanism for irreversible tidewater glacier retreat. Journal of Geophysical Research—Earth Surface, 112 (F3): F03S25.
O’Neel, S., Pfeffer, W. T., Krimmel, R., and Meier, M., 2005: Evolving force balance at Columbia Glacier, Alaska, during its rapid retreat. Journal of Geophysical Research—Earth Surface, 110 (F3): F03012.
Pfeffer, W. T., 2003: Tidewater glaciers move at their own pace. Nature, 426 (6967): 602.
Marshall, H. P., Harper, J. T., Pfeffer, W. T., and Humphrey, N. F., 2002: Depth-varying constitutive properties observed in an isothermal glacier. Geophysical Research Letters, 29 (23): 2146.
Harper, J. T., Humphrey, N. F., Pfeffer, W. T., Huzurbazar, S. V., Bahr, D. B., and Welch, B. C., 2001: Spatial variability in the flow of a valley glacier: Deformation of a large array of boreholes. Journal of Geophysical Research—Solid Earth, 106 (B5): 8547-8562.
Pfeffer, W. T., Humphrey, N. F., Amadei, B., Harper, J., and Wegmann, J., 2000: In-situ stress tensor measured in an Alaska glacier. Annals of Glaciology, 31: 229-235.
Kaplan, M., Pfeffer, W. T., Sassolas, C., and Miller, G. H., 1999: Numerical modeling of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the Baffin Island region: The role of a Cumberland Sound ice stream. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 36: 1315-1326.
Pfeffer, W. T., Dyurgerov, M., Kaplan, M., Dwyer, J., Sassolas, C., Jennings, A., Raup, B., and Manley, W., 1997: Numerical modeling of late glacial Laurentide advance of ice across Hudson Strait: Insights into terrestrial and marine geology, mass balance, and calving flux. Paleoceanography, 12(1), 97-110.

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