Ethan Carr
Physical Geographer
About Ethan
Ethan Carr is a master’s dtudent at CU Boulder, a graduate student researcher at NSIDC, and a GIS analyst at NOAA Global Systems Laboratory. His graduate school research focuses on three fields of study: climate change, glaciology, and natural hazards. His current project focuses on glacial lake outburst flood events from the Greenland Ice Sheet’s ice-marginal lakes. He is also a student member of the Explorers Club and a project group member for the Polar Earth Observation Database Project Group at Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS). Carr received his bachelor's degree from the United States Military Academy where he majored in physical geography and was a member of the men’s lacrosse team all four years. Upon graduation he commisioned as an infantry officer.
Specialties
Current Research
Ice-Marginal Lakes in Greenland: Quantifying the impacts of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Events: Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) along the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) occur when water breaches an ice dam, allowing lake water to rapidly drain beneath the damming glacier. While researched heavily in other glaciated regions of the planet, there are still many unknowns such as the extent of these events along the GrIS. Carr’s research aims to establish three decades-long time series of GLOF events and identify changes in the frequency and area of these lakes over time. The aim of this project is to understand how these events have changed due to global warming and, subsequently, how these events are impacting the damming glaciers. These events can have a wide range of impacts, from glacial thinning to impacting local fisheries. Carr intends to extend this project with a Ph.D. to examine the true impact of these events on various related systems. Currently, this research is self-funded, however, Carr is looking into more funding sources for the future.
