Tidewater-glacier response to supraglacial lake drainage

The flow speed of the Greenland Ice Sheet changes dramatically in inland regions when surface meltwater drains to the bed. But ice-sheet discharge to the ocean is dominated by fast-flowing outlet glaciers, where the effect of increasing surface melt on annual discharge is unknown. Observations of a...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Stevens, Laura A., Nettles, Meredith, Davis, James L., Creyts, Timothy T., Kingslake, Jonathan, Hewitt, Ian J., Stubblefield, Aaron
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Article
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9568665/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36241652
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33763-2
_version_ 1784809685415624704
author Stevens, Laura A.
Nettles, Meredith
Davis, James L.
Creyts, Timothy T.
Kingslake, Jonathan
Hewitt, Ian J.
Stubblefield, Aaron
author_facet Stevens, Laura A.
Nettles, Meredith
Davis, James L.
Creyts, Timothy T.
Kingslake, Jonathan
Hewitt, Ian J.
Stubblefield, Aaron
author_sort Stevens, Laura A.
collection PubMed
description The flow speed of the Greenland Ice Sheet changes dramatically in inland regions when surface meltwater drains to the bed. But ice-sheet discharge to the ocean is dominated by fast-flowing outlet glaciers, where the effect of increasing surface melt on annual discharge is unknown. Observations of a supraglacial lake drainage at Helheim Glacier, and a consequent velocity pulse propagating down-glacier, provide a natural experiment for assessing the impact of changes in injected meltwater, and allow us to interrogate the subglacial hydrological system. We find a highly efficient subglacial drainage system, such that summertime lake drainage has little net effect on ice discharge. Our results question the validity of common remote-sensing approaches for inferring subglacial conditions, knowledge of which is needed for improved projections of sea-level rise.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9568665
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-95686652022-10-16 Tidewater-glacier response to supraglacial lake drainage Stevens, Laura A. Nettles, Meredith Davis, James L. Creyts, Timothy T. Kingslake, Jonathan Hewitt, Ian J. Stubblefield, Aaron Nat Commun Article The flow speed of the Greenland Ice Sheet changes dramatically in inland regions when surface meltwater drains to the bed. But ice-sheet discharge to the ocean is dominated by fast-flowing outlet glaciers, where the effect of increasing surface melt on annual discharge is unknown. Observations of a supraglacial lake drainage at Helheim Glacier, and a consequent velocity pulse propagating down-glacier, provide a natural experiment for assessing the impact of changes in injected meltwater, and allow us to interrogate the subglacial hydrological system. We find a highly efficient subglacial drainage system, such that summertime lake drainage has little net effect on ice discharge. Our results question the validity of common remote-sensing approaches for inferring subglacial conditions, knowledge of which is needed for improved projections of sea-level rise. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9568665/ /pubmed/36241652 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33763-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Stevens, Laura A.
Nettles, Meredith
Davis, James L.
Creyts, Timothy T.
Kingslake, Jonathan
Hewitt, Ian J.
Stubblefield, Aaron
Tidewater-glacier response to supraglacial lake drainage
title Tidewater-glacier response to supraglacial lake drainage
title_full Tidewater-glacier response to supraglacial lake drainage
title_fullStr Tidewater-glacier response to supraglacial lake drainage
title_full_unstemmed Tidewater-glacier response to supraglacial lake drainage
title_short Tidewater-glacier response to supraglacial lake drainage
title_sort tidewater-glacier response to supraglacial lake drainage
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9568665/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36241652
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33763-2
work_keys_str_mv AT stevenslauraa tidewaterglacierresponsetosupraglaciallakedrainage
AT nettlesmeredith tidewaterglacierresponsetosupraglaciallakedrainage
AT davisjamesl tidewaterglacierresponsetosupraglaciallakedrainage
AT creytstimothyt tidewaterglacierresponsetosupraglaciallakedrainage
AT kingslakejonathan tidewaterglacierresponsetosupraglaciallakedrainage
AT hewittianj tidewaterglacierresponsetosupraglaciallakedrainage
AT stubblefieldaaron tidewaterglacierresponsetosupraglaciallakedrainage

Ejemplares similares