Flavien Beaud

University of British Columbia | UBC · Department of Geography

Understanding fast ice flow is key to assessing the future of glaciers. Fast ice flow is controlled by sliding at the bed, yet that sliding is poorly understood. A growing number of studies show the relationship between sliding and basal shear stress transitions from an initially rate-strengthening behavior to a rate-independent or rate-weakening b...

Understanding fast ice flow is key to assess the future of glaciers. Fast ice flow is controlled by sliding at the bed, yet that sliding is poorly understood. A growing number of studies show that the relationship between sliding and basal shear stress transitions from an initially rate-strengthening behavior to a rate-independent or rate-weakening...

The quantification of sediment transport by subglacial water flow is crucial to understand proglacial sediment yields as well as the formation of glacial landforms, such as eskers. Proglacial sediment yields are fundamental to the calculation of contemporary glacial erosion rates and have a significant impact on the landscape and ecosystems located...

As water flows in contact with an ice surface, the heat carried by the water, in addition to that created by viscous flow, can melt the ice surface. This process is of critical importance for glaciology as it controls glacial hydrology and sub-ice shelf melt. Glacial hydrology is an essential component of ice dynamics, while sub-ice shelf melt may...

Sediment yields from glacierized basins are used to quantify erosion rates on seasonal to decadal timescales as well as conditions at the glacier bed, and eskers hold valuable information about past subglacial hydraulic conditions in their spatial organization, geometry, and sedimentary structures. Ultimately, eskers are a record of past glacio-flu...

Subglacial water flow drives the excavation of a variety of bedrock channels including tunnel valleys and inner gorges. Subglacial floods of various magnitudes — events occurring once per year or less frequently with discharges larger than a few hundred of cubic metres per second — are often invoked to explain the erosive power of subglacial water...

Glaciers shape high altitude and latitude landscapes in numerous ways. Erosion associated with glacial processes can limit the average height of mountain ranges, while creating the greatest relief on Earth and shaping the highest mountain peaks, but glaciers can also shield pre-existing topography. Glacial erosion processes, though still enigmatic,...

Bedrock erosion by sediment-bearing subglacial water remains little-studied; however, the process is thought to contribute to bedrock erosion rates in glaciated landscapes and is implicated in the excavation of tunnel valleys and the incision of inner gorges. We adapt physics-based models of fluvial abrasion to the subglacial environment, assemblin...

Bedrock erosion by sediment-bearing subglacial water remains little-studied, however the process is thought to contribute to bedrock erosion rates in glaciated landscapes and is implicated in the excavation of tunnel valleys and the incision of inner gorges. We adapt physics-based models of fluvial abrasion to the subglacial environment, assembling...

Glacial erosion is often referred to as the most efficient erosion process on earth. However, it has recently been shown that extensive glaciation could shield pre-existing topography. Although the main mechanisms of glacial erosion have been identified, their drivers and efficiency remain unclear. In this study, we consider the three main processe...

Based on the inventory of in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be from river-borne sand, we derived catchment-wide denudation rates of a large portion (~3000 km ^2) of the Western Alps. Our samples have been taken from moderate to large river basins (i.e. 25-500 km ^2, n = 16) that drain into the Arve, the Rhone (upstream Lake Geneva) and the Dora Baltea...

The relations between lithosphere and atmosphere to shape the landscape are disputed since the last two decades. The classical "chicken or egg" problem raised the idea that erosion can promote creation of topography thanks to isostatic compensation of eroded material and subsequent positive feedback. Quaternary glaciations and high erosion rates ar...

Most glacial erosion models assume that erosion rates are proportional to ice-sliding velocity. While recent studies have shown that water plays a major role in modulating sliding velocities, the impact it might have on erosion rates is still unclear. Here we incorporate subglacial hydrology into a glacial erosion model that is based on a sliding r...