Almut Iken (1 October 1933 – 10 December 2018) was a German glaciologist most noted for her work on the role of basal meltwater in subglacial motion.
She worked as a senior high school lecturer after her Bachelor's studies, before pursuing a PhD at McGill University in Montreal in 1970 under the supervision of Fritz Müller.
[4] Iken's PhD research into the connection between basal water pressure and glacier motion demonstrated for the first time that velocity variations at White Glacier (Axel Heiberg Island, Canadian Arctic) corresponded with variations in basal water pressure.
[5][6] She continued this work with further field experiments conducted at Unteraargletscher and Findel Glacier in the Swiss Alps.
Eleven boreholes were drilled to the bed on Findel Glacier, which showed that surface velocity variations correlated with subglacial water pressure.