The Department of Applied Mathematics is pleased to host this series of colloquium lectures, funded in part by a generous gift from the Boeing Company. This series will bring to campus prominent applied mathematicians from around the world.
Title: Drumlins
Abstract: Drumlins are small rounded hills which occur in swarms, and which are formed under ice sheets. They are ubiquitous in North America and Northern Europe due to the former presence of the great ice sheets of the last ice age. The enigma of their formation has generated a rich literature over the last two hundred years. The instability theory of drumlin formation has its roots in the work of Richard Hindmarsh in the late 1990s. His basic idea was that drumlins form through an instability due to the shearing motion of ice flowing over a deformable subglacial till. The ingredients of the theory are thus ice flow and till flow. Later, water flow was added. The development of the theory beyond the basic linear instability result was initially hampered by a catacomb of difficulties: these include till rheology, two-dimensionality and cavitation.The numerical solution of the model is also fraught with complication. In this talk, I will describe and illustrate their efforts to resolve these and other difficulties as they arose over the course of the last twenty years, and a summary of the way in which the theory needs to progress will be outlined.
Youtube: Watch the talk online here