Catalina Lake is a gigantic ice-dammed lake on the Renland Peninsula in East Greenland, blocked by Edward Bailey Glacier. Roughly every two decades, the glacier dam fails and billions of tonnes of freshwater are released into Scoresby Sund.

In autumn 2024, the lake drained again. Between 23 September and 11 October, about 3.4 km³ of water escaped through a 25 km tunnel beneath the glacier, and the lake level dropped by 154 m. It was one of the three largest glacial lake outburst floods ever recorded, and the first time a drainage of Catalina Lake was observed by satellites as it happened (press release).

Removing that much water suddenly unloads the Earth’s crust. Does the surrounding landscape measurably rebound?

In this project, you will investigate whether this response can be detected from space, and compare the observations with models of elastic deformation.

Possible project components include:

  • Measuring surface deformation using Sentinel-1 InSAR.
  • Estimating the drained water volume from satellite imagery and elevation data.
  • Modelling the elastic response of the crust to the unloading.
  • Comparing observed and modelled deformation.
  • Exploring whether the observed deformation can constrain the elastic properties of the crust.

Depending on your interests, the project can focus on satellite data analysis, physical modelling, or inverse methods.

The project will build on: