regionally differentiated contribution of mountain glaciers and ice caps to future sea level rise the contribution to sea level rise from mountain glaciers and ice caps has grown over the past decades a projection of their melting during the twenty first century based on temperature and precipitation projections from ten climate models suggests that by 2100 these glaciers will lose about 21 of their total global volume

transfer of basal sliding variations to the surface of a linearly viscous glacier on etudie pour une plaque a faces paralleles d epaisseur h et de viscosite lineaire l effet en surface des fluctuations de la vitesse de derapage

glacier velocity variability due to rain induced sliding and cavity formation abstract the largest accelerations of glaciers and ice sheets are caused by changes in basal slip here we examine glacier speed and rain induced accelerations using a near continuous 26 month long gnss time series from a large maritime glacier tasman glacier new zealand during periods of high rain rate we observe short term increases in 24 hour speeds to up to 15 times background speed speeds calculated over 3 hour intervals increase to up to 36 times background speed acceleration events correspond with times when bed separation also increases rapidly indicating that the acceleration is associated with the growth of water filled cavities at the bed glacier speeds then decrease prior to the reduction in bed separation indicating cavity growth not cavity extent controls the acceleration the short term accelerations are superimposed on longer term periods of enhanced velocity that persist for days to weeks and decay at similar rates to bed separation estimates and proglacial lake levels a power law relationship between observed rain rate and speed exists at the glacier front and exhibits no apparent upper bound overall we estimate that rain induced accelerations account for 11 14 of tasman glacier s displacement during the observation period the rain rate velocity relationship and the rainfall record since 2001 indicate that rain induced speed up events result in interannual variability in glacier displacement of 2 13

fracture propagation to the base of the greenland ice sheet during supraglacial lake drainage surface meltwater that reaches the base of an ice sheet creates a mechanism for the rapid response of ice flow to climate change the process whereby such a pathway is created through thick cold ice has not however been previously observed we describe the rapid 2 hours drainage of a large supraglacial lake down 980 meters through to the bed of the greenland ice sheet initiated by water driven fracture propagation evolving into moulin flow drainage coincided with increased seismicity transient acceleration ice sheet uplift and horizontal displacement subsidence and deceleration occurred over the subsequent 24 hours the short lived dynamic response suggests that an efficient drainage system dispersed the meltwater subglacially the integrated effect of multiple lake drainages could explain the observed net regional summer ice speedup

spatial patterns of glacier motion during a high velocity event haut glacier d arolla switzerland the surface motion of haut glacier d arolla switzerland was monitored at a high spatial and temporal resolution data are analyzed to calculate surface velocities surface strain rates and the components of the glacier force budget before during and after an early melt season speed up or spring event we investigate the extent to which variations in glacier motion can be attributed to hydrologically induced local forcing or to non local forcing transmitted via horizontal stress gradients enhanced glacier motion is dependent on a change in the spatial distribution of areas of high drag across the glacier

greenland ice sheet motion coupled with daily melting in late summer 1 we use ground based and satellite observations to detect large diurnal and longer period variations in the flow of the greenland ice sheet gris during late summer that are strongly coupled with changes in its surface hydrology the diurnal signals are associated with periodic changes in surface melting and the longer period signals are associated with the episodic drainage of supra glacial lakes ice velocity doubles around 2 hours after peak daily melting and returns approximately to wintertime levels around 12 hours afterwards demonstrating an intimate link between the surface and basal hydrology during late summer the ice sheet accelerates by 35 per positive degree day of melting the observed link between surface melting and enhanced flow is typical of alpine glaciers which may provide an appropriate analogue for the evolution of the gris in a warming climate

greenland ice sheet motion insensitive to exceptional meltwater forcing changes to the dynamics of the greenland ice sheet can be forced by various mechanisms including surface melt induced ice acceleration and oceanic forcing of marine terminating glaciers we use observations of ice motion to examine the surface melt induced dynamic response of a land terminating outlet glacier in southwest greenland to the exceptional melting observed in 2012 during summer meltwater generated on the greenland ice sheet surface accesses the ice sheet bed lubricating basal motion and resulting in periods of faster ice flow however the net impact of varying meltwater volumes upon seasonal and annual ice flow and thus sea level rise remains unclear we show that two extreme melt events 98 6 of the greenland ice sheet surface experienced melting on july 12 the most significant melt event since 1889 and 79 2 on july 29 and summer ice sheet runoff 3 9 above the 1958 2011 mean resulted in enhanced summer ice motion relative to the average melt year of 2009 however despite record summer melting subsequent reduced winter ice motion resulted in 6 less net annual ice motion in 2012 than in 2009 our findings suggest that surface melt induced acceleration of land terminating regions of the ice sheet will remain insignificant even under extreme melting scenarios

the effect of the subglacial water pressure on the sliding velocity of a glacier in an idealized numerical model in order to interpret observed short term variations of the sliding velocity of a glacier the effect of a variable subglacial water pressure on the sliding velocity has been studied using an idealized numerical model in particular the transient stages of growing or shrinking water filled cavities at the ice bedrock interface were analysed it was found that the sliding velocity was larger when cavities were growing than when they had reached the steady state size for a given water pressure the smallest sliding velocities occurred while cavities were shrinking when cavitation is substantial a small drop of water pressure below the steady state value e g by 0 5 bar can temporarily cause backward sliding a limiting water pressure at which sliding becomes unstable is derived the consequences of more realistic assumptions than those of the model are discussed

past and future mass balance of ka roimata o hine hukatere franz josef glacier new zealand despite their relatively small total ice volume mid latitude valley glaciers are expected to make a significant contribution to global sea level rise over the next century due to the sensitivity of their mass balance systems to small changes in climate here we use a degree day model to reconstruct the past century of mass balance variation at ka roimata o hine hukatere franz josef glacier new zealand and to predict how mass balance may change over the next century analysis of the relationship between temperature precipitation and mass balance indicates that temperature is a stronger control than precipitation on the mass balance of franz josef glacier the glacier s mass balance relative to its 1986 geometry has decreased at a mean annual rate of 0 02 m a 1 w e between 1894 and 2005 we compare this reduction to observations of terminus advance and retreat of which franz josef glacier has the best record in the southern hemisphere for the years 2000 05 the relative mass balance ranged from 0 75 to 1 50 m a 1 w e with 2000 01 the only year showing a negative mass balance in a regionally downscaled intergovernmental panel on climate change mean warming scenario the annual relative mass balance will continue to decrease at 0 02 m a 1 w e through the next century

increased flow speed on a large east antarctic outlet glacier caused by subglacial floods large ice streams and outlet glaciers drain greenland and antarctica an observed acceleration of ice velocity in one of these outlet glaciers byrd glacier east antarctica coincides with a large water discharge from two subglacial lakes allowing direct attribution of the change in glacier dynamics to the water drainage network beneath the ice

dynamic controls on glacier basal motion inferred from surface ice motion 1 current heuristic laws that relate the motion of glaciers due to sliding along the bed to the subglacial water pressure fail to reproduce variations in sliding speed on timescales of specific hydrologic events such as lake drainage rainfall or surging this may be due to the importance of subglacial cavity evolution and shifts in the glacier stress field both of which are not accounted for in typical sliding laws we use multiple time series of surface motion over a 66 day period at brei amerkurjokull iceland to infer changes in bed separation and longitudinal force budget we observe multiple distinct periods of increased surface motion and uplift corresponding to periods of rainfall and or increased temperatures we find consistent hysteresis and lags between motion and variations in both the bed separation and longitudinal stress gradient that we attribute to the redistribution of normal stresses at the bed during cavity growth increases in the longitudinal stress gradient suggest a downglacier stress transfer during increased basal motion that is consistent with increased drainage system efficiency toward the terminus our results suggest that the transient evolution of the subglacial drainage system and shifts in the glacier stress field are important controls on basal motion

summer melt regulates winter glacier flow speeds throughout alaska 1 predicting how climate change will affect glacier and ice sheet flow speeds remains a large hurdle toward accurate sea level rise forecasting increases in surface melt rates are known to accelerate glacier flow in summer whereas in winter flow speeds are believed to be relatively invariant here we show that wintertime flow speeds on nearly all major glaciers throughout alaska are not only variable but are inversely related to melt from preceding summers for each additional meter of summertime melt we observe an 11 decrease in wintertime velocity on glaciers of all sizes geometries climates and bed types this dynamic occurs because interannual differences in summertime melt affect how much water is retained in the subglacial system during winter the ubiquity of the dynamic indicates it occurs globally on glaciers and ice sheets not frozen to their beds and thus constitutes a new mechanism affecting sea level rise projections

areal melt and discharge modelling of storglaciaren sweden a grid based glacier melt and discharge model was applied to storglaciaren a small valley glacier 3 km 2 in northern sweden for the melt seasons of 1993 and 1994 the energy available for melt was estimated from a surface energy balance model using meteorological data collected by automatic weather stations on the glacier net radiation and the turbulent heat fluxes were calculated hourly for every grid point of a 30 m resolution digital terrain model using the measurements of temperature humidity wind speed and radiative fluxes on the glacier two different bulk approaches were used to calculate the turbulent fluxes and compared with respect to their impact on discharge simulations discharge of storglaciaren was simulated from calculated meltwater production and precipitation by three parallel linear reservoirs corresponding to the different storage properties of firn snow and ice the performance of the model was validated by comparing simulated discharge to measured discharge at the glacier snout depending on which parameterization of the turbulent fluxes was used the timing and magnitude of simulated discharge was in good agreement with observed discharge or simulated discharge was considerably underestimated in one year

strong feedbacks between hydrology and sliding of a small alpine glacier 1 we report the spatial and temporal pattern of sliding on the 7 km long bench glacier alaska using five continuously recording gps antennas following motion of the surface ice distributed at 1 km spacing along the glacier center line we documented surface ice motion over 50 days during summer 2002 surface speeds in two previous winters constrain the motion component associated with ice deformation allowing isolation of the sliding speed history we observed two speedup events bracketing 2 weeks of steady slow sliding the first event was not associated with a meteorological trigger was more subtle than the second and propagated up glacier at a rate of several hundred meters per day the second event coincided with a warm up valley wind which triggered considerable melt of the glacier surface sliding speeds in this event reached 0 3 m d 1 and began almost simultaneously at all sites in the ablation area both the horizontal and vertical displacement time series can be explained by growth and collapse of cavities in the lee of bumps in the bedrock bed cavities grow during rapid sliding and decay by viscous creep we posit that effective pressure averaged over some large area of the bed is inversely proportional to the sliding speed this effective pressure then controls the collapse rate of cavities whose dimensions are estimated from a plausible stepped bed geometry this model explains well the horizontal and vertical surface displacement history through the first event and beginning of the second event the vertical record demands a substantial and abrupt drop in water pressure that departs from the posited sliding effective pressure relationship we argue that this pressure drop reflects establishment of efficient subglacial drainage also manifested in a nearly simultaneous step increase in water discharge in the exit stream the establishment of an efficient conduit system terminates sliding its maintenance inhibits further sliding over the remainder of the summer

delineation of geochemical haloes using the developed zonality index model by multivariate and fractal analysis in the cu mo porphyry deposits abstract main aim of this study is to propose a developed zonality index for cu mo porphyry deposits based on staged factor analysis with number size n s fractal model this method was used in an iranian porphyry system as named serenu se iran the developed zonality index was a ratio between factors related to major and minor ore elements based on in situ soil samples in this study two factors were extracted after three stages of factor analysis including f1 3 pb zn au ag mn cd as and f2 3 cu mo based on these factors f 1 3 f 2 3 is determined as a developed zonality index furthermore conventional zonality index was calculated on the basis of p b z n c u m o then these zonality indexes were classified by the n s fractal modeling results obtained by the fractal modeling indicates that the main anomalies for the developed zonality index is correlated with plutonic units mineralized rock samples and exploratory boreholes especially in the central and se parts of the studied area this methodology can be utilized for other types of ore mineralization

neuro fuzzy modeling based genetic algorithms for identification of geochemical anomalies in mining geochemistry abstract a genetic algorithm ga based neuro fuzzy approach is used for identification of geochemical anomalies by implementing a takagi sugeno and kang tsk type fuzzy inference system in a 5 layered feed forward adaptive artificial neural network this paper investigates the effectiveness of ga based neuro fuzzy for separating zone dispersed mineralization zdm from blind mineralization and its application for identification of geochemical anomalies in the arid landscape of the lut metallogenic province in eastern iran other classification algorithms such as metallometry zonality criteria and back propagation artificial neural network classifiers are also used for comparison the genetic operators are carefully designed to optimize the artificial neural network avoiding premature convergence and permutation problems the results show that the ga based hybrid neuro fuzzy model can provide accurate results in comparison with those results obtained by other techniques neuro fuzzy and ga based neuro fuzzy techniques appear to be well suited for routine exploration geochemistry applications in conjunction with statistics and conventional mathematical methods hybrid approaches can be developed and may prove a step forward in the practice of applied geochemistry

implications of increased greenland surface melt under global warming scenarios ice sheet simulations abstract the greenland ice sheet is likely to make a faster contribution to sea level rise in a warming world than previously believed based on numerical modelling using a parameterization of recent results showing surface meltwater lubrication of ice flow zwally et al science 297 557 2002 218 documented correlation between increased ice velocity and increased surface melt as parameterized by positive degree days they argued that surface water is piped directly to the bed with little delay causing increased basal water pressures and basal sliding velocities an effect not included in recent greenland ice sheet models known to the authors using the pennsylvania state university university of chicago thermomechanical flowline model numerous simulations were conducted to test a wide range of parameter space linking surface melt with a new sliding law based on the zwally et al data under three different global warming scenarios 2 co2 4 co2 and 8 co2 comparisons to reconstructions generated with a traditional sliding parameterization illustrate an enhanced sensitivity of the ice sheet to surface warming resulting in higher ablation rates additional thinning and retreat of the margin and a reduction in ice volume leading to an increased contribution to global sea level rise

short term variations in glacier flow controlled by subglacial water pressure at lauteraargletscher bernese alps switzerland short term variations in horizontal and vertical surface motion were studied with high temporal resolution during the ablation season in lauteraargletscher bernese alps switzerland horizontal surface flow speed oscillated diurnally showing a correlation with the water level in a borehole flow speed increased as a function of the water level with an asymptote at the ice overburden level this observation implied that the flow variations were principally controlled by the local water pressure which enhanced basal motions detailed examination of the diurnal variations however showed that the speed was larger when the pressure was increasing than when it was decreasing greater speed with increasing pressure was interpreted by subglacial watercavity opening and or longitudinal stress coupling with the upper reaches of the glacier upward surface movements were observed when the glacier flow speed increased simultaneous measurement of internal vertical strain in a borehole showed that the uplift had two different sources vertical straining of ice and volume increase of subglacial water cavities the vertical surface movement was largely affected by the vertical strain and the uplift events could not be simply attributed to cavity opening

cenozoic paleogeography of the central mogollon rim southern colorado plateau region arizona revealed by tertiary gravel deposits oligocene to pleistocene lava flows and incised streams eocene to pleistocene paleogeography of the mogollon rim southern colorado plateau region in central arizona is interpreted by use of tertiary sedimentary deposits and mafic lavas that have been correlated on the bases of provenance of pebbles stratigraphic sequence geomorphic positions of deposits and flows published k ar ages tracing of lava flows to vents and lava textures and structures five categories of tertiary sedimentary deposits are 1 paleocene to oligocene fluvial and lacustrine deposits on the margin of the colorado plateau that were derived from local and distant southern sources 2 oligocene to miocene deposits in valleys at the base of the mogollon rim that were derived from local and distant southern sources 3 oligocene to pliocene locally derived gravel on pediments and in canyons along the rim 4 miocene locally derived lag gravel beneath sheet flows on the plateau and 5 miocene to pleistocene locally derived channel filling gravel on the plateau mafic lavas used are 1 upper oligocene to lower miocene basalt and minette in the transition zone 2 miocene pahoehoe sheet flows on the colorado plateau and draped over the mogollon rim 3 middle miocene to pleistocene cones and flows of basalt scattered across the region and 4 pliocene to pleistocene basalts of the mormon and san francisco volcanic fields basalt sheet flows in ten middle ca 12 ma and upper ca 6 ma miocene flow fields traced to 12 low profile vent structures cover nearly 30 of a 9000 km2 area of the central mogollon rim region and depict the paleogeography at the times of eruption principal conclusions are 1 the mogollon rim developed near its present position after precambrian rocks in central arizona had been unroofed during the paleocene to eocene epochs and before late oligocene to early miocene mafic volcanism 2 after erosional quiescence during the paleogene triassic strata were stripped off the southern colorado plateau in a miocene to pleistocene erosional sweep from the southwest to the northeast 3 incision of meanders on the mogollon slope occurred in the late pliocene to pleistocene epochs as a result of integration of the little colorado river with the colorado river in the grand canyon

waves of accelerated motion in a glacier approaching surge the mini surges of variegated glacier alaska u s a periods of dramatically accelerated motion in which the flow velocity increases suddenly from about 55 cm d to a peak of 100 300 cm d and then decreases gradually over the course of a day occurred repeatedly during june and july 1978 81 in variegated glacier alaska a surging type glacier that surged in 1982 83 these mini surges appear to be related mechanistically to the main surge the flow velocity peak propagates down glacier as a wave at a speed of about 0 3 km h over a reach of about 6 km in length it is accompanied by a propagating pressure wave in the basal water system of the glacier in which after a preliminary drop the pressure rises rapidly to a level greater than the ice overburden pressure at the glacier bed and then drops gradually over a period of 1 2 d usually reaching a new low for the summer the peak velocity is accompanied by a peak of high seismic activity due to widespread fresh crevassing it is also accompanied by a rapid uplift of the glacier surface amounting to 6 11 cm which then relaxes over a period of 1 2 d maximum uplift rate coincides with the peak in flow velocity the peak in accumulated uplift lags behind the velocity peak by 2 h the uplift is mainly due to basal cavitation driven by the high basal water pressure although the strain wave associated with the mini surge motion can also contribute basal cavitation is probably responsible for the pulse of high turbidity that appears in the terminal outflow stream in association with each mini surge in the down glacier reach where the mini surge waves are attenuating the observed strain wave corresponds to what is expected for the propagating pulse in flow velocity but in the reach of maximum mini surge motion the strain wave has a form quite different possibly related to special features in the mini surge initiation process from that point up stream the flow acceleration in the mini surges is due to enhanced basal sliding caused by the high basal water pressure and the consequent reduction of bed friction a preliminary velocity increase shortly before the pressure wave arrives is caused by the forward shove that the main accelerated mass exerts on the ice ahead of it and the resulting preliminary basal cavitation causes the drop in water pressure shortly before the pressure wave arrives the mini surge wave propagation is controlled by the propagation of the water pressure wave in the basal water conduit system the propagation characteristics result from a longitudinal gradient up glacier increase in hydraulic conductivity of the basal water system in response to the up glacier increase of the basal water pressure in the mini surge wave the mini surge waves are initiated in a succession of areas situated generally progressively up glacier during the course of the summer season in these areas presumably melt water that has accumulated in subglacial reservoirs is released suddenly into the basal water system immediately below generating a pressure rise that propagates down stream from there relationships of the mini surges to the main surge are seen in the role of high basal water pressure in causing the rapid glacier motion in both phenomena in the pulse propagation features of both and in the high outflow turbidity associated with both the mini surges of variegated glacier have a strong resemblance to movement and uplift events observed in unteraargletscher and findelengletscher switzerland this bears on the question whether the mini surges are a particular characteristic of surge type glaciers prior to surge

hydrological discharges and motion of fels and black rapids glaciers alaska u s a implications for the structure of their drainage systems characteristics of the hydrology and motion of black rapids and fels glaciers alaska were observed from 1986 to 1989 hydrological measurements included stage electrical conductivity and suspended sediment concentration in the discharge stream of each glacier and were made at 0 5 1 h intervals continuously through most of the melt seasons variations in the glacier speed were monitored through the full year at a number of locations along the length of each glacier using time lapse photography 1 d time resolution strain meters 0 5 1 h resolution and seismometers set up to count acoustic emissions both glaciers show similar seasonal diurnal and short term event changes in hydrological discharges and ice speed the hydrological behavior is analyzed in terms of a fast sub system composed of surface streams moulins and large tunnels with discharge that responds rapidly and a slow sub system composed of heterogeneous small passageways through the ice and distributed over the bed that maintain approximately uniform discharge over a day the timing and amplitude of water discharge in the diurnal cycle indicate that roughly 10 40 of the water is routed directly into the fast system the remaining 90 60 of the water enters the slow system dilution of the solute discharged from the slow system by the variable discharge in the fast system results in changes in water discharge and solute concentration that are approximately equal in relative amplitude and inversely related a small time lag from discharge maximum minimum to solute minimum maximum suggests that the fast system is confined to roughly the lowermost 30 40 of the full glacier length the residence time of water in the fast system is short compared to 1 d the slow system contains both short and long residence time passages characteristics of the diurnal cycles are somewhat variable through the melt season but no systematic evolutionary patterns were discerned even though large changes in the mean discharges of water and solutes occur which suggests parallel evolution of the variables that control the response of the fast system events were characterized by contemporaneous increases in suspended sediment concentration in the discharge water and distinct changes in straining on the glaciers events caused by increases in melt or precipitation related to weather and events related to release from reservoirs internal to the glaciers could be distinguished based on the changes in electrical conductivity of the discharge water the correlated changes in sediment discharge and motion of the glaciers indicate that the events were associated with temporary modifications of the slow passages distributed over the bed that allowed enhanced sliding and access of basal water flow to erosion products hydrological differences between black rapids and fels glaciers can be explained by differences in the size of the glaciers if there is a difference in bed structure that explains the difference in dynamics surge black rapids glacier versus non surge fels glacier it does not affect the hydrological parameters that were observed

primary geochemical characteristics of mineral deposits implications for exploration extract the old adage mineral exploration is like finding a needle in a haystack recaps the difficulty of finding economic mineral deposits near or beneath the surface in general two main approaches can be used to detect the presence of mineral deposits near or beneath the ground surface one employs a mineral deposit model and the other aims at the identification of a primary halo about a mineral deposit a mineral deposit model provides systematic empirical descriptive and or theoretical genetic descriptions of the essential geological geochemical and geophysical features of a type of mineral deposits cf cox and singer 1986 and roberts et al 1988 the primary halo of a mineral deposit as defined originally by safronov 1936 is an area including rock surrounding mineral deposit ore bodies and enriched elements that make up that deposit thus descriptions of primary haloes may form part of a mineral deposit model but both deposit model and primary halo approaches to mineral exploration are based on studies of primary geochemical characteristics of mineral deposits because chemical processes during mineralization are the ones that ultimately bring about metal precipitation or mineral formation however a deposit model approach to mineral exploration is apt for identifying which haystacks contain a needle whereas a primary halo approach to mineral exploration is proper for deducing where in a needle bearing haystack is the needle located

combined measurements of subglacial water pressure and surface velocity of findelengletscher switzerland conclusions about drainage system and sliding mechanism interpretation des mesures de pression dans les forages et des vitesses superficielles la comparaison avec les modeles suggere que l on a neglige le frottement du aux debris dans les modeles et qu il n existe jamais de chenaux cylindriques rectilignes

surface melt induced acceleration of greenland ice sheet flow ice flow at a location in the equilibrium zone of the west central greenland ice sheet accelerates above the midwinter average rate during periods of summer melting the near coincidence of the ice acceleration with the duration of surface melting followed by deceleration after the melting ceases indicates that glacial sliding is enhanced by rapid migration of surface meltwater to the ice bedrock interface interannual variations in the ice acceleration are correlated with variations in the intensity of the surface melting with larger increases accompanying higher amounts of summer melting the indicated coupling between surface melting and ice sheet flow provides a mechanism for rapid large scale dynamic responses of ice sheets to climate warming

hydrological controls on diurnal ice flow variability in valley glaciers 1 this paper uses a combination of field data and three dimensional modeling to investigate the spatial variability in basal conditions required to induce observed fluctuations in diurnal ice velocity at haut glacier d arolla switzerland a network of surface velocity markers was observed at intervals of as little as four hours over diurnal cycles in both winter and late summer winter motion showed limited diurnal variability presumably due to the absence of supraglacial meltwater inputs by contrast diurnal fluctuations in ice motion were recorded in summer across the lower and upper glacier in the lower glacier surface velocities were intimately linked to hydrological forcing in the vicinity of a subglacial channel previously observed diurnal excursions of meltwater away from the channel should reduce areas of basal drag adjacent to the channel thereby impacting on ice dynamics using a first order ice flow approximation we investigated the distribution of basal shear traction adjacent to the channel necessary to replicate the observed surface velocity field during periods of rapid ice motion the modeling suggests that the observed variations in diurnal velocity will only occur with extensive reductions in basal drag across a transverse zone of up to 560 m across well beyond the immediate vicinity and previously observed extent of diurnal excursions of meltwater away from the subglacial channel

short term variations in flow velocity of glaciar soler patagonia chile short term variations in ice flow velocity were obtained at intervals of a few hours and a few days in the ablation area of glaciar soler patagonia chile in november 1985 a maximum flow rate was measured at about four times the minimum value a good correlation with a time lag of 7 5 h was found between the ice flow velocity in the lower reaches and the amount of water discharge from the glacier terminus it was concluded therefore that the velocity variations should have resulted from the variations in basal sliding velocity which is strongly controlled by the subglacial water pressure

delineation of gold mineralized zones using concentration volume fractal model in qolqoleh gold deposit nw iran article i nfo the aim of this study is to delineate and recognize the different gold mineralized zones based on surface and subsurface lithogeochemical au data utilizing concentration volume c v model in the qoloqoleh gold vein deposit nw iran c v modeling outlined six geochemical populations and four mineralized zones for au element based on log log plot which was correlated with the mineralized veins from geological data ex tremely mineralized veins are higher than 14 12 ppm in au grade which are correlated with surface weath ered zone by oxidized pyrites the main phase of gold mineralization where au grade typically ranges between 3 98 and 14 12 ppm is associated with thick quartz veins moderately and weakly mineralized zones ranging from 0 354 to 3 98 ppm au derived by c v model were correlated with narrow quartz veins that contain minor sulfides in the deposit barren host rocks obtained by c v modeling were correlated with barren quartz veins in the deposit the results were compared with a geological model showing a strong positive correlation between mineralized zones and quartz sulfide veins hosted by meta volcanic rocks and sericite schist results examined via the c v fractal model illustrate that the interpreted zones based on the fractal model mineralogical sem and epma analyses have strong correlation with highly and moderately silicic mineralized veins consisting of sulfides and au to certify this a logratio matrix was employed to validate the c v fractal model for au and two lithological units namely meta volcanic rocks and sericite schists indicating the overall accuracy of 0 56 and 0 58 respectively

observations of a reversal in vertical and horizontal strain rate regime during a motion event on unteraargletscher bernese alps switzerland during a motion event on unteraargletscher bernese alps switzerland in spring 1996 surface velocities were measured up to eight times a day at four different locations along the central flowline using global positioning system equipment in addition accumulated vertical strains over the uppermost 50 and 100 m were measured at a location where the total ice thickness is 260 m the motion event was accompanied by high horizontal and vertical strain rates as compared to annual mean values a reversal in strain regime was observed with horizontal strain rates changing to extension while vertical strain rates became compressive this strain rate reversal coincided within the temporal resolution of the data with a maximum in vertical ice displacement at the surface within a day variations in vertical strain from 0 04 a 1 to 0 06 a 1 were observed over the uppermost 100 m vertical stretching is estimated to have contributed to at least 20 of the anomalous vertical ice movement at the surface there were significant differences between measured longitudinal strain averaged over a distance corresponding to a few ice thicknesses and measured vertical strain in spring 1997 a similar but more detailed set of measurements was collected at the same measuring site and vertical strain rates were found to vary non uniformly with depth with the largest values closest to the surface

geomorphological characterisation and interpretation of a mid latitude glacier like form hellas planitia mars we describe and interpret the surface terrain types associated with a widely reported 4 km long midlatitude martian viscous flow feature vff the feature is located in the southern hemisphere on the poleward facing rim of a 60 km diameter crater in eastern hellas planitia high resolution imaging science experiment hirise images analysed in both 2d and 3d reveal that the upper margin of the feature is bounded by steep 30 headwalls typically some tens of metres high that are formed from unconsolidated material and characterised by a series of slope parallel linear incisions below these incised headwalls the feature flows at a general angle of 10 from a broad upper basin to a confined lower tongue that is bounded by a nested sequence of elongate raised ridges these characteristics are typical of several vffs in the region and are strikingly similar to moraine bounded valley glaciers on earth and we sub classify this feature as a glacier like form glf 1 the glf comprises five distinctive surface terrain types that contrast sharply with surface characteristics outside its bounding moraines four of these terrains scaly terrain polygonized terrain linear terrain and mound and tail terrain are located within the glf s innermost bounding moraine while the fifth rectilinear ridge terrain is located between its frontal moraines these terrains are mapped characterised and associated with possible mechanisms of formation to draw inferences about the glf s glaciology and glacial history this analysis suggests that the glf reached its maximal extent in the geologically recent past and that it may have been partially wetbased at that time subsequent to this phase the glf experienced an extended period of general recession that has been punctuated by several episodes of still stand or advance currently the glf s basin appears to be composed of a lower zone that is dominated by an exposed former glacier bed and an upper zone that may still contain a now degraded and dust mantled viscous mass similar to many partially glacierized basins on earth

a geomorphic analysis of hale crater mars the effects of impact into ice rich crust abstract hale crater a 125 150 km impact crater located near the intersection of uzboi vallis and the northern rim of argyre basin at 35 7 s 323 6 e is surrounded by channels that radiate from incise and transport material within hale s ejecta the spatial and temporal relationship between the channels and hale s ejecta strongly suggests the impact event created or modified the channels and emplaced fluidized debris flow lobes over an extensive area 200 000 km2 we estimate 1010 m3 of liquid water was required to form some of hale s smaller channels a volume we propose was supplied by subsurface ice melted and mobilized by the hale forming impact if 10 of the subsurface volume was ice based on a conservative porosity estimate for the upper martian crust 1012 m3 of liquid water could have been present in the ejecta we determine a crater retention age of 1 ga inside the primary cavity providing a minimum age for hale and a time at which we propose the subsurface was volatile rich hale crater demonstrates the important role impacts may play in supplying liquid water to the martian surface they are capable of producing fluvially modified terrains that may be analogous to some landforms of noachian mars

short term velocity variations on hansbreen a tidewater glacier in spitsbergen spatial and temporal variations of the flow of hansbreen a tidewater glacier in southern spitsbergen svalbard are investigated during summer 1999 surface flow velocities were measured in the ablation zone of hansbreen with a temporal reso lution of 3 4 hours short events with strongly increased surface velocities and a typical duration of 1 2 days were observed these speed up events are related to periods of strongly increased water input to the glacier due to rainfall or enhanced surface melt a close relation is found between the surface velocities and water pressure recorded in a moulin however there are indications from a short time lag between velocity and water pressure peak as well as from observed vertical surface uplifts that basal motion is related to basal water storage rather than directly to basal water pressure the observed short term velocity variations and associated processes on hansbreen are very similar to those observed on land based valley glaciers and suggest that the relevant mechanisms and physical processes that control the flow and its temporal variations are similar in contrast to the flow of land based glaciers sliding velocities on hansbreen are observed to be high all year round and velocities increase towards the calving front

gasa impact crater mars very young gullies formed from impact into latitude dependent mantle and debris covered glacier deposits abstract the mode of formation of gullies on mars very young erosional depositional landforms consisting of an alcove channel and fan is one of the most enigmatic problems in martian geomorphology major questions center on their ages geographic and stratigraphic associations relation to recent ice ages and if formed by flowing water the sources of the water to cause the observed erosion deposition gasa 35 72 s 129 45 e a very fresh 7 km diameter impact crater and its environment offer a unique opportunity to explore these questions we show that gasa crater formed during the most recent glacial epoch 2 1 0 4 ma producing secondary crater clusters on top of the latitude dependent mantle ldm interpreted to be a layered ice dust rich deposit emplaced during this glacial epoch high resolution images of a pre gasa impact crater 100 km northeast of gasa reveal that portions of the secondary crater covered ldm have been removed from pole facing slopes in crater interiors near gasa gullies are preferentially located in these areas and channels feeding alcoves and fans can be seen to emerge from the eroding ldm layers to produce multiple generations of channel incision and fan lobes we interpret these data to mean that these gullies formed extremely recently in the post gasa impact time period by melting of the ice rich ldm stratigraphic and topographic relationships are interpreted to mean that under favorable illumination geometry steep pole facing slopes and insolation conditions melting of the debris covered ice rich mantle took place in multiple stages most likely related to variations in spin axis orbital conditions closer to gasa in the interior of the 18 km diameter ldm covered host crater in which gasa formed the pole facing slopes display two generations of gullies early somewhat degraded gullies have been modified by proximity to gasa ejecta emplacement and later fresh appearing gullies are clearly superposed cross cut the earlier phase and show multiple channels and fans interpreted to be derived from continued melting of the ldm on steep pole facing slopes thus we conclude that melting of the ice rich ldm is a major source of gully activity both pre gasa crater and post gasa crater formation the lack of obscuration of gasa secondary clusters formed on top of the ldm is interpreted to mean that the gasa impact occurred following emplacement of the last significant ldm layers at these low latitudes and thus near the end of the ice ages this interpretation is corroborated by the lack of ldm within gasa however gasa crater contains a robustly developed set of gullies on its steep pole facing slopes unlike other very young post ldm craters in the region how can the gullies inside gasa form in the absence of an ice rich ldm that is interpreted to be the source of water for the other adjacent and partly contemporaneous gullies analysis of the interior floor and walls of the host crater suggest that prior to the gasa impact the pole facing walls and floor were occupied by remnant debris covered glaciers formed earlier in the amazonian which are relatively common in crater interiors in this latitude band we suggest that the gasa impact cratering event penetrated into the southern portion of this debris covered glacier emplaced ejecta on top of the debris layer covering the ice and caused extensive melting of the buried ice and flow of water and debris slurries on the host crater floor inside gasa the impact crater rim crest and wall intersected the debris covered glacier deposits around the northern pole facing part of the gasa interior we interpret this exposure of ice rich debris covered glacial material in the crater wall to be the source of meltwater that formed the very well developed gullies along the northern pole facing slopes of gasa crater

melt induced speed up of greenland ice sheet offset by efficient subglacial drainage fluctuations in surface melting are known to affect the speed of glaciers and ice sheets but their impact on the greenland ice sheet in a warming climate remains uncertain although some studies suggest that greater melting produces greater ice sheet acceleration others have identified a long term decrease in greenland s flow despite increased melting here we use satellite observations of ice motion recorded in a land terminating sector of southwest greenland to investigate the manner in which ice flow develops during years of markedly different melting although peak rates of ice speed up are positively correlated with the degree of melting mean summer flow rates are not because glacier slowdown occurs on average when a critical run off threshold of about 1 4 centimetres a day is exceeded in contrast to the first half of summer when flow is similar in all years speed up during the latter half is 62 16 per cent less in warmer years consequently in warmer years the period of fast ice flow is three times shorter and overall summer ice flow is slower this behaviour is at odds with that expected from basal lubrication alone instead it mirrors that of mountain glaciers where melt induced acceleration of flow ceases during years of high melting once subglacial drainage becomes efficient a model of ice sheet flow that captures switching between cavity and channel drainage modes is consistent with the run off threshold fast flow periods and later summer speeds we have observed simulations of the greenland ice sheet flow under climate warming scenarios should account for the dynamic evolution of subglacial drainage a simple model of basal lubrication alone misses key aspects of the ice sheet s response to climate warming

an inventory and population scale analysis of martian glacier like forms abstract martian glacier like forms glfs indicate that water ice has undergone deformation on the planet within its recent geological past but the driving mechanisms behind the origin evolution and dynamics of these landforms remain poorly understood here we present the results of a comprehensive inventory of glfs derived from a database of 8058 context camera ctx images to describe the physical controls on glf concentration and morphometry the inventory identifies 1309 glfs 727 glfs in the northern hemisphere and 582 in the southern hemisphere clustered in the mid latitudes centred on a mean latitude of 39 3 in the north and 40 7 in the south and in areas of rough topography morphometric data show inter hemispheric similarity in glf length mean 4 66 km and width mean 1 27 km suggesting a common evolutionary history and a poleward orientation of glfs in both hemispheres indicating a sensitivity to climate and insolation on a local scale elevation is shown to be the most important control on glf location with most glfs occurring above an altitude threshold of 3000 m aod and in areas of moderate but not high relief we propose therefore that martian glfs may not exhibit accumulation or ablation areas as is the norm for terrestrial glacial systems but reflect ice motion in response to local relief within a widely distributed reservoir of ice deposited within prescribed latitudinal and elevational ranges

response of glacier basal motion to transient water storage the speed of a glacier is affected most by sudden jumps in the water supply to the glacier but it goes back to previous levels if high water inputs are sustained because the glacier s plumbing system adjusts

glacier velocity and water input variability in a maritime environment franz josef glacier new zealand short term glacier velocity variations typically occur when a water input is accommodated by an increase in the subglacial water pressure although these velocity variations have been well documented on many glaciers few studies have considered them on glaciers where heavy rain and glacier melt occur year round this study investigates the relationship between water inputs and glacier velocity on franz josef glacier new zealand we installed six gnss stations across the lower glacier during austral summer 2010 11 and one station during summer 2012 13 glacier velocity remained elevated at all stations for 7 days following large rain events during diurnal melt events we find velocity variations in the early afternoon 12 00 16 00 at 600 m a s l and in the late evening 20 00 01 00 at 400 m a s l we hypothesize that the late evening velocity variations occurred as an upstream region of high subglacial water pressures and accelerated ice motion propagated downstream this mechanism may also explain the increased longitudinal compression and transverse extension across the lower glacier during speed up events our results indicate that the subglacial drainage system likely decreases in efficiency upstream and that the water input variability can still cause short term velocity variations despite the large year round water inputs

subglacial drainage system structure and morphology of brewster glacier new zealand a global positioning system and ground penetrating radar surveys is used to produce digital elevation models of the surface and bed of brewster glacier these are used to derive maps of subglacial hydraulic potential and drainage system structure using three different assumptions about the subglacial water pressure pw i pw ice overburden ii pw half ice overburden iii pw atmospheric additionally 16 dye tracing experiments at 12 locations were performed through a summer melt season dye return curve shape together with calculations of transit velocity dispersivity and storage are used to infer the likely morphology of the subglacial drainage system taken together the data indicate that the glacier is underlain by a channelised but hydraulically inefficient drainage system in the early summer in which water pressures are close to ice overburden by mid summer water pressures are closer to half ice overburden and the channelised drainage system is more hydraulically efficient surface streams that enter the glacier close to the location of major subglacial drainage pathways are routed quickly to the channels and then to the glacier snout streams that enter the glacier further away from the drainage pathways are routed slowly to the channels and then to the snout because they first flow through a distributed drainage system copyright 2008 john wiley sons ltd

surface ice motion deviating toward the margins during speed up events at gornergletscher switzerland 1 high frequency ice flow measurements during speed up events in gornergletscher switzerland revealed intriguing ice motion which has never been reported in detail before during the summer 2005 more than a 100 flow speed increase was observed three times at four gps stations installed across gornergletscher the speed ups were accompanied by a decimeter scale surface uplift two of the events were triggered by intensive surface melt and rainfall while the third one was due to the outburst of gornersee a glacier dammed lake located 2 km upglacier an interesting observation was ice motion deviating toward the side margins during the events as the glacier accelerated a transverse cross glacier velocity component was generated turning the flow direction away from the central flow line toward the margins when the glacier decelerated the transverse velocity component reversed so that the ice flowed back to the azimuth of the initial flow direction in the most significant case the trajectory of the survey stake deviated from the original track by 0 2 m in the transverse direction we hypothesize that the observed lateral ice motion was caused by locally elevated subglacial water pressure when the ice sole decoupled from the bed at a part of the glacier a point source of vertical displacement was transmitted to the surface through viscous ice this caused the transverse as well as vertical surface motion as observed in ground motion during magma intrusion the hypothesis was tested with a two dimensional ice flow model applied to the transverse glacier cross section the model confirmed that the surface ice would move toward the margins as observed in gornergletscher if subglacial water pressure exceeded the ice overburden pressure over a limited part of the bed

climate sensitivity of a high precipitation glacier in new zealand the sensitivity of glaciers to climatic change is key information in assessing the response and sea level implications of projected future warming new zealand glaciers are important globally as an example of how maritime glaciers will contribute to sea level rise a spatially distributed energy balance model is applied to brewster glacier new zealand in order to calculate glacier mass balance run off and sensitivity to climate change the model successfully simulates four annual mass balance cycles close to half 52 of the energy available for melt on the glacier is supplied by turbulent heat fluxes with radiation less important except during the winter model sensitivity to temperature change is one of the largest reported on earth at 2 0 m w e a 1 8c 1 in contrast a 50 change in precipitation is required to offset the mass balance change resulting from a 18c temperature change meltwater run off sensitivity is also very high increasing 60 with a 18c warming the extreme sensitivity of mass balance to temperature change suggests that significant ice loss will occur with even moderate climate warming

water flow through temperate glaciers understanding water movement through a glacier is fundamental to several critical issues in glaci ology including glacier dynamics glacier induced floods and the prediction of runoff from glacierized drainage basins to this end we have synthesized a conceptual model of water movement through a temper ate glacier from the surface to the outlet stream pro cesses that regulate the rate and distribution of water input at the glacier surface and that regulate water movement from the surface to the bed play important but commonly neglected roles in glacier hydrology where a glacier is covered by a layer of porous perme able firn the accumulation zone the flux of water to the glacier interior varies slowly because the firn tempo rarily stores water and thereby smooths out variations in the supply rate in the firn free ablation zone in con trast the flux of water into the glacier depends directly on the rate of surface melt or rainfall and therefore varies greatly in time water moves from the surface to the bed through an upward branching arborescent net work consisting of both steeply inclined conduits formed by the enlargement of intergranular veins and gently inclined conduits spawned by water flow along the bottoms of near surface fractures crevasses engla cial drainage conduits deliver water to the glacier bed at a limited number of points probably a long distance downglacier of where water enters the glacier englacial conduits supplied from the accumulation zone are quasi steady state features that convey the slowly varying water flux delivered via the firn their size adjusts so that they are usually full of water and flow is pressurized in contrast water flow in englacial conduits supplied from the ablation area is pressurized only near times of peak daily flow or during rainstorms flow is otherwise in an open channel configuration the subglacial drainage system typically consists of several elements that are distinct both morphologically and hydrologically an up glacier branching arborescent network of channels in cised into the basal ice conveys water rapidly much of the water flux to the bed probably enters directly into the arborescent channel network which covers only a small fraction of the glacier bed more extensive spatially is a nonarborescent network which commonly includes cav ities gaps between the glacier sole and bed channels incised into the bed and a layer of permeable sediment the nonarborescent network conveys water slowly and is usually poorly connected to the arborescent system the arborescent channel network largely collapses during winter but reforms in the spring as the first flush of meltwater to the bed destabilizes the cavities within the nonarborescent network the volume of water stored by a glacier varies diurnally and seasonally small temper ate alpine glaciers seem to attain a maximum seasonal water storage of 200 mm of water averaged over the area of the glacier bed with daily fluctuations of as much as 20 30 mm the likely storage capacity of subglacial cavities is insufficient to account for estimated stored water volumes so most water storage may actually occur englacially stored water may also be released abruptly and catastrophically in the form of outburst floods

recycling of orogenic arc crust triggers porphyry cu mineralization in kerman cenozoic arc rocks southeastern iran pre collisional eocene oligocene arc diorites quartzdiorites granodiorites and volcanic equivalents in the kerman arc segment in central iran lack porphyry cu mineralization and ore deposits whereas collisional middle late miocene adakite like porphyritic granodiorites without volcanic equivalents host some of the world s largest cu ore deposits petrological and structural constraints suggest a direct link between orogenic arc crust evolution and the presence of a fertile metallogenic environment ore hosting kuh panj porphyry intrusions exhibit high sr 400 ppm low y 20 no negative eu anomalies eu eu 1 and relatively non radiogenic sr isotope signatures 87sr 86sr 0 7042 0 7047 relative to eocene oligocene granitoids mainly sr 12 la yb 15 eu eu 1 87sr 86sr 0 7053 0 7068 trace element modeling indicates peridotite melting for the barren eocene oligocene intrusions and a hydrous garnet bearing amphibolite source for middle late miocene ore hosting intrusions the presence of garnet implies collisional arc crustal thickening by shortening and basaltic underplating from about 30 35 to 40 45 km or 12 kbar the changes in residual mineralogy in the source of eocene to miocene rocks in the kerman arc segment reflect probing of a thickening arc crust by recycling melting of the arc crustal keel underplating of cu and sulfur rich melts from fertile peridotite generated a fertile metallogenic reservoir at or near the crust mantle boundary and dehydration melting under oxidizing conditions produced syn and post collisional ore hosting intrusions while the lack of post collisional volcanism prevented the venting of volatiles to the atmosphere from sulfur rich and oxidized adakitic magmas

borehole water level variations and the structure of the subglacial hydrological system of haut glacier d arolla valais switzerland late summer subglacial water pressures have been measured in a dense array of boreholes in the ablation area of haut glacier d arolla switzerland interpolated surfaces of minimum diurnal water pressure and diurnal water pressure variation suggest the presence of a subglacial channel within a more widespread distributed drainage system the channel flows along the centre of a variable pressure axis vpa some tens of metres wide that is characterized by low minimum diurnal water pressures frequently atmospheric and high diurnal water pressure variations these characteristics are transitional over a lateral distance of c 70 m to higher and more stable subglacial water pressures in the adjacent distributed system water pressure variations recorded in boreholes located close to the centre of the vpa reflect the delivery of surface derived meltwater to the glacier bed and result in a diurnally reversing transverse hydraulic gradient that drives water out from the channel into the distributed system during the afternoon and back to the channel overnight subglacial observations suggest that such flow occurs through a vertically confined sediment layer borehole turbidity records indicate that the resulting diurnal water flows are responsible for the mobilization and transport of fine debris in suspension analysis of the propagation velocity and amplitude attenuation of the diurnal pressure waves suggests that the hydraulic conductivity of the sediment layer decreases exponentially with distance from the channel falling from c 10 4 m s 1 at the channel boundary to c 10 7 ms 1 70m away these apparent hydraulic conductivities are consistent with darcian flow through clean sand and typical glacial till respectively we suggest that fine material is systematically flushed from basal sediments located adjacent to large melt season drainage channels beneath warm based glaciers this process may have important implications for patterns of glacier erosion hydrochemistry and dynamics

possible ice wedge polygons and recent landscape modification by wet periglacial processes in and around the argyre impact basin mars abstract the argyre basin and associated rim materials in the southern hemisphere of mars are ancient having been formed by the impact of a large body 4 gya this notwithstanding the regional landscape continues to be altered by a multiplicity of geological and geomorphological processes three landforms whose close spatial association is identified in a new geological map of the argyre region 290 360 e 30 72 s feature prominently in the list of very late amazonian epoch alterations a small sized 20 m in diameter and unsorted polygons that exhibit metre to sub metre elevated margins or shoulders giving them a low centred appearance in wet permafrost environments on earth low centred polygons lcps often are underlain by ice wedges b gullies seemingly formed by wet flow s and incised by the lcps c a putative possibly ice rich latitude dependent mantle ldm that underlies the lcps and spatially convergent wet gullies in all of our observations these landforms occur from the middle to the high near polar latitudes of the region and overlie geological units of all ages hitherto the presence of the lcps has been reported only fleetingly in the literature and only in as much as they have been observed on the walls of a few scalloped depressions in mid utopia planitia by contrast we report the ubiquitous occurrence of the lcps in and around the argyre impact basin on gully margins and adjacent slopes as well as on relatively flat inter crater terrain on the basis of three separate but related lines of reasoning we hypothesise that ice wedges could be present beneath lcp margins in our study region if we are correct then these lcp sites are geomorphological expressions of boundary conditions that were relatively warm and wet in the recent past first substantial ice wedging in permafrost environments on earth requires the availability of meltwater if as some researchers propose the formation of some wet gullies at the martian mid latitudes is induced by the localised slope side and crater wall thaw of the underlying ldm at the gully sites themselves then meltwater also should be available for ice wedging and the formation of lcps at these sites interestingly lcps are observed on gully channel walls as expected if meltwater is associated with gully formation however in some instances the lcps are also observed on the slope side terrain that extends for hundreds of metres beyond the channel walls and even above the gully alcoves this suggests that the distribution of icy terrain affected by thaw could be much more substantial than has been suggested hitherto second lcps that are identical in shape and scale to the slope side lcps are observed on relatively flat inter crater terrain also underlain by the ldm that is distal from the wet gullies by contrast here their distribution extends for kilometres this too could be indicative of meltwater being more extensive in the regional landscape than most workers have thought possible third on earth the dryness or the wetness of a permafrost environment determines whether lcp margins are underlain by sand or by ice when the observed lcps and major deposits of sand in the study region are plotted on our new map of the argyre impact basin we see that these deposits are rarely proximal on the other hand the ldm underlies the lcps in all instances and if modified by thaw seems to be a likelier source of margin fill for the lcps than sand

large and rapid melt induced velocity changes in the ablation zone of the greenland ice sheet continuous global positioning system observations reveal rapid and large ice velocity fluctuations in the western ablation zone of the greenland ice sheet within days ice velocity reacts to increased meltwater production and increases by a factor of 4 such a response is much stronger and much faster than previously reported over a longer period of 17 years annual ice velocities have decreased slightly which suggests that the englacial hydraulic system adjusts constantly to the variable meltwater input which results in a more or less constant ice flux over the years the positive feedback mechanism between melt rate and ice velocity appears to be a seasonal process that may have only a limited effect on the response of the ice sheet to climate warming over the next decades

evidence for recent climate change on mars from the identification of youthful near surface ground ice ground ice in the crust and soil may be one of the largest reservoirs of water on mars1 2 3 near surface ground ice is predicted to be stable at latitudes higher than 40 ref 4 where a number of geomorphologic features indicative of viscous creep and hence ground ice have been observed5 mid latitude soils have also been implicated as a water ice reservoir6 the capacity of which is predicted to vary on a 100 000 year timescale owing to orbitally driven variations in climate7 it is uncertain however whether near surface ground ice currently exists at these latitudes and how it is changing with time here we report observational evidence for a mid latitude reservoir of near surface water ice occupying the pore space of soils the thickness of the ice occupied soil reservoir 1 10 m and its distribution in the 30 to 60 latitude bands indicate a reservoir of 1 5 6 0 104 km3 equivalent to a global layer of water 10 40 cm thick we infer that the reservoir was created during the last phase of high orbital obliquity less than 100 000 years ago and is now being diminished

seasonal evolution of subglacial drainage and acceleration in a greenland outlet glacier an acceleration of ice mass loss has been observed near the margin of the greenland ice sheet partly as a result of faster ice motion observations by gps receivers reveal high seasonal variability in ice motion with summer motion up to 220 higher than winter background levels the greenland ice sheet contains enough water to raise sea levels by 7 m however its present mass balance and future contribution to sea level rise is poorly understood1 accelerated mass loss has been observed near the ice sheet margin partly as a result of faster ice motion2 3 4 surface melt waters can reach the base of the ice sheet and enhance basal ice motion5 6 however the response of ice motion to seasonal variations in meltwater supply is poorly constrained both in space and time here we present ice motion data obtained with global positioning system receivers located along a 35 km transect at the western margin of the greenland ice sheet throughout a summer melt season our measurements reveal substantial increases in ice velocity during summer up to 220 above winter background values these speed up events migrate up the glacier over the course of the summer the relationship between melt and ice motion varies both at each site throughout the melt season and between sites we suggest that these patterns can be explained by the seasonal evolution of the subglacial drainage system similar to hydraulic forcing mechanisms for ice dynamics that have been observed at smaller glaciers

initial results from a distributed physically based model of glacier hydrology this paper describes the development and testing of a distributed physically based model of glacier hydrology the model is used to investigate the behaviour of the hydrological system of haut glacier d arolla valais switzerland the model has an hourly time step and three main components a surface energy balance submodel a surface flow routing submodel and a subglacial hydrology submodel the energy balance submodel is used to calculate meltwater production over the entire glacier surface the surface routing submodel routes meltwater over the glacier surface from where it is produced to where it either enters the subglacial hydrological system via moulins or runs off the glacier surface the subglacial hydrology submodel calculates water flow in a network of conduits which can evolve over the course of a melt season simulation in response to changing meltwater inputs the main model inputs are a digital elevation model of the glacier surface and its surrounding topography start of season snow depth distribution data and meteorological data model performance is evaluated by comparing predictions with field measurements of proglacial stream discharge subglacial water pressure measured in a borehole drilled to the glacier bed and water velocities inferred from dye tracer tests the model performs best in comparison with the measured proglacial stream discharges but some of the substantial features of the other two records are also reproduced in particular the model results show the high amplitude water pressure cycles observed in the borehole in the mid melt season and the complex velocity discharge hysteresis cycles observed in dye tracer tests the results show that to model outflow hydrographs from glacierized catchments effectively it is necessary to simulate spatial and temporal variations in surface melt rates the delaying effect of the surface snowpack and the configuration of the subglacial drainage system itself the model s ability to predict detailed spatial and temporal patterns of subglacial water pressures and velocities should make it a valuable tool for aiding the understanding of glacier dynamics and hydrochemistry 1998 john wiley sons ltd

migrating pingos in the permafrost region of the tibetan plateau china and their hazard along the golmud lhasa railway abstract most pingos in the permafrost region of the high northern tibetan plateau form along active fault zones and many change position annually along the zones and thus appear to migrate the fault zones conduct geothermal heat which thins permafrost and control cool to hot springs in the region they maintain ground water circulation through broken rock in an open system to supply water for pingo growth during the winter in overlying fluvial and lacustrian deposits springs remain after the pingos thaw in the summer fault movement earthquakes and man s activities cause the water pathways supplying pingos to shift and consequently the pingos migrate the hazard posed to the new golmud lhasa railway across the plateau by migrating pingos is restricted to active fault zones but is serious as these zones are common and generate large earthquakes pingos have damaged the highway and the oil pipeline adjacent to the railway since 2001 one caused tilting and breaking of a bridge pier and destroyed a highway bridge across the chumaerhe fault another has already caused minor damage to a new railway bridge furthermore the construction of a bridge pier in the north wuli fault zone in july august 2003 created a conduit for a new spring which created a pingo during the following winter measures taken to drain the ground water via a tunnel worked well and prevented damage before the railway tracks were laid however pier vibrations from subsequent train motion disrupted the drain and led to new springs which may induce further pingo growth beneath the bridge the migrating pingos result from active fault movement promoting artesian ground water circulation and changing water pathways under the seasonal temperature variations in the permafrost region they pose a serious hazard to railway construction which in turn can further disturb the ground water conduits and affect pingo migration

temporal spatial distribution and tectonic setting of porphyry copper deposits in iran constraints from zircon u pb and molybdenite re os geochronology abstract porphyry copper deposits pcds in iran are dominantly distributed in arasbaran nw iran the middle segment of the urumieh dokhtar magmatic arc udma and kerman central se iran with minor occurrences in eastern iran and the makran arc this paper provides a temporal spatial and geodynamic framework of the iranian porphyry cu mo au systems based on geochronologic data obtained from zircon u pb and molybdenite re os dating of host porphyritic rocks and molybdenites in 15 major pcds the dating results define a long metallogenic duration 39 6 ma and suggest a long history of tectonic evolution from the accretionary orogeny related to early cenozoic closure of the neo tethys ocean to subsequent collisional orogeny for the iranian porphyry copper systems the oldest porphyry mineralization occurred in the eastern part of iran after the closure of a branch of the neo tethyan sistan ocean between the lut and afghan blocks in the late eocene 39 37 ma this was followed by mineralization in the kerman porphyry copper belt over a time interval of about 20 m y where two metallogenic epochs have been recognized including late oligocene 29 27 ma and miocene 18 6 ma the bondar e hanza deposit formed in the late oligocene while and the remaining dated deposits belong to miocene epoch according to the deposits characteristics and their ages the miocene epoch can be divided into early middle and late stages the darreh zar bakh khoshk chah firouzeh and sar kuh deposits formed during the early middle miocene the largest porphyry deposits occur in the middle stage during the middle miocene 14 11 ma and include the sar cheshmeh meiduk dar alu and now chun deposits these deposits were formed during crustal thickening uplift and rapid exhumation of the belt the final stage of porphyry mineralization occurred during the late miocene 9 6 ma and formed the iju kerver kuh panj and abdar deposits there were two porphyry mineralization stages in the arasbaran porphyry copper belt in nw iran including an older late oligocene 29 27 ma and a younger early miocene 22 20 ma events the haft cheshmeh deposit belongs to the older stage and the world class sungun and masjed daghi deposits formed during the early miocene in the middle segment of the udma saveh yazd porphyry copper belt pcds formed during middle miocene time 17 15 ma the geochronological results reveal that the porphyry mineralization moved from the northwest to southeast of udma over the time our dating results combined with the possible late eocene oligocene timing for collision between the arabian and iranian plates support a model for iranian pcd formation by partial melting of previously subduction modified lithosphere in a post subduction and post collisional tectonic setting

possible open system hydraulic pingos in and around the argyre impact region of mars abstract we report the observation of possible hydraulic open system pingos osps at the mid latitudes 37 s in and around the argyre impact basin osps are perennial water ice cored mounds they originate and evolve in periglacial and pro glacial landscapes on earth where intra or sub permafrost water under hydraulic artesian pressure uplifts localised sections of surface or near surface permafrost that then freezes in situ we invoke three lines of evidence in support of our analogue based interpretation 1 similarities of shape size and summit traits between terrestrial osps and the martian mounds 2 clustered distribution and the slope side location of the mounds consistent with terrestrial permafrost environments where osps are found and 3 spatially associated landforms putatively indicative of periglacial and glacial processes on mars that characterise osp landscapes on earth this article presents five osp candidate locations and nests these mound locations within a new geological map of the argyre impact basin and margins it also presents three periglacial hypotheses about the possible origin of the water required to develop the mounds alternative non periglacial formation hypotheses also are considered however we show that their robustness is not equal to that of the periglacial ones