Inverting ice-sheet history and Earth rheology from GIA

Last updated: August 2026

About

Glacial-isostatic adjustment records the coupled history of ice-sheet growth and loss, sea-level change, and mantle deformation. GPS uplift, gravity observations, relative sea-level records, raised shorelines, sediment cores, and exposure ages contain complementary information, but neither ice history nor mantle rheology can be inferred from one dataset alone.

This project will develop inverse methods that use these observations to constrain past ice-sheet evolution and present-day Earth rheology. It will examine which observations reduce the relevant uncertainties and how model assumptions affect the inferred history.

Research questions

• Which combinations of geological and geodetic observations constrain ice history and mantle rheology?
• How can inverse methods separate the effects of ice loading from Earth structure?
• Which observations provide the greatest value for future field or satellite campaigns?

Methods and data

Projects can use GIA forward and adjoint models, GPS, GRACE, satellite altimetry, relative sea-level records, exposure ages, and Bayesian or variational inverse methods.

Possible projects

Possible directions include a synthetic inversion study, a regional Antarctic application, an assessment of data value, or development of a coupled ice-history and rheology inversion.

Essential background

Useful preparation includes geophysics, glaciology, mathematics, physics, programming, statistics, or inverse modelling.