Joan J Fitzpatrick
Physical properties of glacier ice and the development of paleoclimate records from high-latitude ice caps and ice sheets. Microstructural modeling and dynamic recrystallization processes in glaciers and ice sheets.
Biography
Recent Accomplishments
Education
- B.A. Geology, University of California, Berkeley, 1973
- M.A. Geology, University of California, Berkeley, 1975
- Ph.D. Geology, University of California, Berkeley, 1976
Professional Studies/Experience
- 1976-1978 Research Scientist, Colorado School of Mines Research Institute
- 1978-1984 Research Scientist and Adjunct Professor, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Denver University
- 1984-present Geologist / Physical Scientist, US Geological Survey
- Physical properties of glacier ice and the development of paleoclimate records from high-latitude ice caps and ice sheets. Microstructural modeling and dynamic recrystallization processes in glaciers and ice sheets.
- Project Chief: Ice Dynamics, Paleoclimate, and Ice Cores
Mentorship/Outreach
- 1978-1984 Research Scientist and Adjunct Professor, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Denver University
Professional societies/affiliations/committees/editorial boards
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (Fellow)
- American Geophysical Union
- International Glaciological Society
- American Meteorological Society
Honors, awards, recognition, elected offices
Scientific/Oral Presentations, Abstracts
Science and Products
Late-Holocene climate evolution at the WAIS Divide site, West Antarctica: Bubble number-density estimates
A surface cooling of ∼1.7°C occurred over the ∼two millennia prior to ∼1700 CE at the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS) Divide site, based on trends in observed bubble number-density of samples from the WDC06A ice core, and on an independently constructed accumulation-rate history using annual-layer dating corrected for density variations and...
Fegyveresi, John M.; Alley, R. B.; Spencer, M.K.; Fitzpatrick, J.J.; Steig, E.J.; White, J.W.C.; McConnell, J.R.; Taylor, K.C. History of the Greenland Ice Sheet: paleoclimatic insights
Paleoclimatic records show that the GreenlandIce Sheet consistently has lost mass in response to warming, and grown in response to cooling. Such changes have occurred even at times of slow or zero sea-level change, so changing sea level cannot have been the cause of at least some of the ice-sheet changes. In contrast, there are no documented major...
Alley, Richard B.; Andrews, John T.; Brigham-Grette, J.; Clarke, G.K.C.; Cuffey, Kurt M.; Fitzpatrick, J.J.; Funder, S.; Marshall, S.J.; Miller, G. H.; Mitrovica, J.X.; Muhs, D.R.; Otto-Bliesner, B. L.; Polyak, L.; White, J.W.C. Past climate variability and change in the Arctic and at high latitudes
Paleoclimate records play a key role in our understanding of Earth's past and present climate system and in our confidence in predicting future climate changes. Paleoclimate data help to elucidate past and present active mechanisms of climate change by placing the short instrumental record into a longer term context and by permitting models to be...
Alley, Richard B.; Brigham-Grette, Julie; Miller, Gifford H.; Polyak, Leonid Developing a bubble number-density paleoclimatic indicator for glacier ice
Past accumulation rate can be estimated from the measured number-density of bubbles in an ice core and the reconstructed paleotemperature, using a new technique. Density increase and grain growth in polar firn are both controlled by temperature and accumulation rate, and the integrated effects are recorded in the number-density of bubbles as the...
Spencer, M.K.; Alley, R. B.; Fitzpatrick, J.J. Fabric and texture at Siple Dome, Antarctica
Preferred c-axis orientations are present in the firn at Siple Dome, West Antarctica, and recrystallization begins as shallow as 200 m depth in ice below -20°C, based on digital analysis of c-axis fabrics, grain-sizes and other characteristics of 52 vertical thin sections prepared in the field from the kilometer-long Siple Dome ice core. The...
Diprinzio, C.L.; Wilen, Lawrence A.; Alley, R. B.; Fitzpatrick, J.J.; Spencer, M.K.; Gow, A.J. Conditions for bubble elongation in cold ice-sheet ice
Highly elongated bubbles are sometimes observed in ice-sheet ice. Elongation is favored by rapid ice deformation, and opposed by diffusive processes. We use simple models to show that vapor transport dominates diffusion except possibly very close to the melting point, and that latent-heat effects are insignificant. Elongation is favored by larger...
Alley, R. B.; Fitzpatrick, J.J. The geochemical record in rock glaciers
A 9.5 m ice core was extracted from beneath the surficial debris cover of a rock glacier at Galena Creek, northwestern Wyoming. The core contains clean, bubble-rich ice with silty debris layers spaced at roughly 20 cm intervals. The debris layers are similar in appearance to those in typical alpine glaciers, reflecting concentration of debris by...
Steig, E.J.; Fitzpatrick, J.J.; Potter, N.; Clark, D.H.
Analysis of firn gases collected at shallow depths in the Wrangell-St. Elias range, Alaska, the GISP2 site, Greenland, and the Taylor Dome site, East Antarctica
Landis, Gary P.; Fitzpatrick, Joan J.; Everett, T. Saline minerals in the Lewis Cliff ice tongue, Buckley Island Quadrangle, Antarctica
Fitzpatrick, J.J.; Muhs, D.R.; Jull, A.J.T. Borax in the supraglacial moraine of the Lewis Cliff, Buckley Island quadrangle--first Antarctic occurrence
During the 1987-1988 austral summer field season, membersof the south party of the antarctic search for meteorites south-ern team* working in the Lewis Cliff/Colbert Hills region dis-covered several areas of unusual mineralization within theLewis Cliff ice tongue and its associated moraine field (figure1). The Lewis Cliff ice tongue (84°15'S...
Fitzpatrick, J.J.; Muhs, D.R.