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Title: Greenland subglacial drainage evolution regulated by weakly connected regions of the bed

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13903· OSTI ID:1343703
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  3. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
  4. Univ. of Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland)
  5. Univ. of South Florida, Tampa, FL (United States)
  6. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland)
  7. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (United States)
  8. Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab., Hanover, NH (United States)

Penetration of surface meltwater to the bed of the Greenland Ice Sheet each summer causes an initial increase in ice speed due to elevated basal water pressure, followed by slowdown in late summer that continues into fall and winter. While this seasonal pattern is commonly explained by an evolution of the subglacial drainage system from an inefficient distributed to efficient channelized configuration, mounting evidence indicates that subglacial channels are unable to explain important aspects of hydrodynamic coupling in late summer and fall. Here we use numerical models of subglacial drainage and ice flow to show that limited, gradual leakage of water and lowering of water pressure in weakly connected regions of the bed can explain the dominant features in late and post melt season ice dynamics. Finally, these results suggest that a third weakly connected drainage component should be included in the conceptual model of subglacial hydrology.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1343703
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-16-24080
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 7; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 78 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Sustained high basal motion of the Greenland ice sheet revealed by borehole deformation text January 2014
Direct observations of evolving subglacial drainage beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet text January 2014
Heat sources within the Greenland Ice Sheet: dissipation, temperate paleo-firn and cryo-hydrologic warming text January 2015
Ice dynamic response to two modes of surface lake drainage on the Greenland ice sheet text January 2013
Modelling the transfer of supraglacial meltwater to the bed of Leverett Glacier, Southwest Greenland text January 2019
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Oscillatory subglacial drainage in the absence of surface melt posted_content November 2013
Borehole water-level variations and the structure of the subglacial hydrological system of Haut Glacier d’Arolla, Valais, Switzerland journal January 1995
Sustained high basal motion of the Greenland ice sheet revealed by borehole deformation text January 2014
Thick sediments beneath Greenland's ablation zone and their potential role in future ice sheet dynamics text January 2014
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Cited By (27)

Carbon dating reveals a seasonal progression in the source of particulate organic carbon exported from the Greenland Ice Sheet: Trends in Exported Subglacial Carbon Age journal June 2017
Physical Conditions of Fast Glacier Flow: 1. Measurements From Boreholes Drilled to the Bed of Store Glacier, West Greenland journal February 2018
Surface melt‐driven seasonal behaviour (englacial and subglacial) from a soft‐bedded temperate glacier recorded by in situ wireless probes journal May 2019
Recent Advances in Our Understanding of the Role of Meltwater in the Greenland Ice Sheet System journal November 2017
Experimental constraints on subglacial rock friction journal December 2019
Interannual modulation of seasonal glacial velocity variations in the Eastern Karakoram detected by ALOS-1/2 data journal May 2018
SHMIP The subglacial hydrology model intercomparison Project journal October 2018
Seasonal Evolution of the Subglacial Hydrologic System Modified by Supraglacial Lake Drainage in Western Greenland journal June 2018
Dynamic Response of a High Arctic Glacier to Melt and Runoff Variations journal May 2018
Physical Conditions of Fast Glacier Flow: 3. Seasonally-Evolving Ice Deformation on Store Glacier, West Greenland journal January 2019
Cascading lake drainage on the Greenland Ice Sheet triggered by tensile shock and fracture journal March 2018
Evidence of an active volcanic heat source beneath the Pine Island Glacier journal June 2018
Dynamic response of the Greenland ice sheet to recent cooling journal February 2020
The Influence of Hydrology on the Dynamics of Land-Terminating Sectors of the Greenland Ice Sheet journal February 2019
SHAKTI: Subglacial Hydrology and Kinetic, Transient Interactions v1.0 journal January 2018
Dual-satellite (Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8) remote sensing of supraglacial lakes in Greenland journal January 2018
Basal control of supraglacial meltwater catchments on the Greenland Ice Sheet journal January 2018
Modelling seasonal meltwater forcing of the velocity of land-terminating margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet journal January 2018
Relationship Between Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Speed And Modeled Effective Pressure text January 2018
Cascading lake drainage on the Greenland Ice Sheet triggered by tensile shock and fracture. text January 2018
Dual-satellite (Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8) remote sensing of supraglacial lakes in Greenland text January 2018
Seasonal evolution of the subglacial hydrologic system modified by supraglacial lake drainage in western Greenland text January 2018
Physical conditions of fast glacier flow: 1. measurements from boreholes drilled to the bed of Store Glacier, West Greenland text January 2018
Relationship Between Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Speed And Modeled Effective Pressure text January 2018
Modelling seasonal meltwater forcing of the velocity of land-terminating margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet text January 2018
Relationship Between Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Speed and Modeled Effective Pressure journal September 2018
Fluctuation analysis in the dynamic characteristics of continental glacier based on Full-Stokes model journal December 2019

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