character of the englacial and subglacial drainage system in the upper part of the ablation area of storglaciaren sweden on 4 july 1986 dye was injected at a point slightly above the equil ibrium line on storglac iliren a small valley glacier in northern sweden just below the equilibrium line the glacier bed is over deep ened the dye re appeared in a stream at the glacier terminus over the next 35 d this stream normally carries relatively little sediment in constrast to the situ ation in another nearby stream that also emerges from the glacier this sugge sts that the dye traveled in englacial rather than subglacial conduits tracer tests utilizing salt in bore holes in the overde epening support this interp retation as the bore holes were draining well above the bed the dye appeared during three distinct events suggesting that it became divided into at least three separate parcels shortly after iojection this probably occurred in the crevassed area in the vicinity of the inje ction point the englacial location of the drainage may be explained by the fact that in order to remain at the pressure melting p oint water in subg lacial conduits coming out of the overde epening may have had to warm up faster than would be possible by visc ous heating alone such

spatial variation of radar derived basal conditions on kamb ice stream west antarctica radar profiles of bed echo intensity can survey conditions at the ice bed interface and test for the presence or absence of water however extracting information about basal conditions from bed echo intensities requires an estimate of the attenuation loss through the ice we used the relationship between bed echo intensities from constant offset radar data and ice thickness to estimate depth averaged attenuation rates at several locations on and near kamb ice stream kis west antarctica we found values varying from 29 db km 1 at siple dome to 15 db km 1 in the main trunk region of kis in agreement with a previous measurement and models using these attenuation rate values we calculated the relative bed reflectivity throughout our kis surveys and found that most of the bed in the trunk has high basal reflectivities similar to those obtained in the location of boreholes that found water at the bed areas of lower bed reflectivity are limited to the sticky spot where a borehole found a dry bed and along the margins of kis these results support previous hypotheses that the basal conditions at locations like the sticky spot on kis control its stagnation and possible reactivation

the interrelation of glaciotectonic and glaciodepositional processes within the glacial environment abstract in recent years it has been recognised that ice sediment coupling occurred beneath the quaternary ice sheets that advanced over the soft sediments of lowland areas this paper looks in detail at the effects of this coupling on the sediments which results in glaciotectonic deformation and also discusses the interaction of deformation and deposition within the subglacial environment two types of glaciotectonic deformation are discussed that are produced by the active movement of ice 1 proglacial tectonics at the margin which include compressive fold styles such as listric thrusts and faults and open folding 2 subglacial tectonics formed beneath the glacier which include fold styles resulting from simple shear and represent a soft rock purely dynamic shear zone styles of deformation associated with stagnant ice are also investigated we argue that glaciotectonic deformation is a common phenomenon and an integral part of geological record from continental ice sheets it is suggested that zones of deformation within the sediment are related to similar zones of strain in the ice sheet and complex deformation sequences are produced by the superimposition of these differing styles upon one another as the ice sheet advances and retreats it is also argued that subglacial deposition and deformation are related and that on soft beds underformed till is rare whilst deformed till is very common

surface melt driven seasonal behaviour englacial and subglacial from a soft bedded temperate glacier recorded by in situ wireless probes we investigate the spatial and temporal englacial and subglacial processes associated with a temperate glacier resting on a deformable bed using the unique glacsweb wireless in situ probes embedded in the ice and the till combined with other techniques including ground penetrating radar gpr and borehole analysis during the melt season spring summer and autumn high surface melt leads to high water pressures in the englacial and subglacial environment winter is characterised by no surface melting on most days base apart from a series of positive degree days once winter begins a diurnal water pressure cycle is established in the ice and at the ice sediment interface with direct meltwater inputs from the positive degree days and a secondary slower englacial pathway with a five day lag this direct surface melt also drives water pressure changes in the till till deformation occurred throughout the year with the winter rate approximately 60 that of the melt season we were able to show the bed comprised patches of till with different strengths and were able to estimate their size relative percentage and temporal stability we show that the melt season is characterised by a high pressure distributed system and winter by a low pressure channelized system we contrast this with studies from greenland overlying rigid bedrock where the opposite was found we argue our results are typical of soft bedded glaciers with low englacial water content and suggest this type of glacier can rapidly respond to surface driven melt based on theoretical and field results we suggest that the subglacial hydrology comprises a melt season distributed system dominated by wide anastomosing broad flat channels and thin water sheets which may become more channelized in winter and more responsive to changes in meltwater inputs

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

subglacial till a physical framework for its properties and processes the continuum theory of mixtures provides a framework around which present knowledge of subglacial till can be organized the proposed framework is provisional in two senses the constitutive description of till will require improvement and not all potentially significant processes have been included till is treated as a three component mixture of water clasts coarse grained solids and fine grained matrix solids these components obey mass balance equations and their behavior is subject to constitutive relations that describe such processes as darcian water transport fine grained sediment transport consolidation shear deformation dilatancy and comminution five state variables uniquely determine the compressibility permeability shear strength and other physical properties numerical solutions of the state evolutions equations illustrate that the properties of till are highly responsive to changes in the subglacial environment

bedform topography and basal conditions beneath a fast flowing west antarctic ice stream a grid of seismic reflection lines has been used to image basal topography and infer basal conditions and flow processes beneath similar to 140 km 2 of rutford ice stream west antarctica the subglacial topography in this region consists of two troughs flanking a central high and the bed is composed of water saturated sediments the two troughs are filled with deforming sediment whereas the bed in the central region appears to undergo a transition from largely deforming conditions upstream to basal sliding downstream the deforming bed is very flat along flow but undulates across flow sliding areas show rougher bed topography cross stream bed topography is characterised by streamlined mounds of deforming sediment aligned in the ice flow direction these bedforms occur superimposed on the bed in regions of both basal sliding and sediment deformation in places they form finger like mounds of material which extend into the sliding region further downstream mean bedform height is 22 m mean width is 267 m and many of them extend for at least 1 2 km along flow we interpret most of these bedforms as drumlins and one as a mega scale glacial lineation the juxtaposition of different basal conditions is consistent with models proposed from terrestrial studies in which the glacier bed is a mosaic of stable and deforming bed areas variable both spatially and temporally any theory of subglacial sediment rheology must also be able to account for our conclusion that at any given time pervasive deformation extends at least a few metres into the bed and can persist over a considerable area many km 2 bedform geometry and basal conditions concur with interpretations of former ice streams with evidence for increasing elongation ratio with distance downstream however those studies also identified bedrock cropping out at the ice bed interface for which there is no evidence on rutford ice stream c 2008 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

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

ice speed of a calving glacier modulated by small fluctuations in basal water pressure ice flow acceleration has played a crucial role in the rapid retreat of calving glaciers in alaska greenland and antarctica high frequency measurements of ice speed and basal water temperatures from a calving glacier in patagonia show that changes in basal water pressure by a few per cent can significantly affect ice flow speed ice flow acceleration has played a crucial role in the rapid retreat of calving glaciers in alaska1 2 greenland and antarctica3 4 glaciers that calve in water flow much faster than those that terminate on land as a result of enhanced basal ice motion where basal water pressure is high5 however a scarcity of subglacial observations in calving glaciers limits a mechanistic understanding here we present high frequency measurements of ice speed and basal water pressures from glaciar perito moreno a fast flowing calving glacier in patagonia we measured water pressure in boreholes drilled at a site where the glacier is 515 5 m thick and where more than 60 of the ice is below the level of proglacial lakes we found that the mean basal water pressure was about 95 of the pressure imposed by the weight of the overlying ice moreover changes in basal water pressure by a few per cent drove nearly 40 of the variations in ice flow speed the ice speed was strongly correlated to air temperature suggesting that glacier motion was modulated by water pressure changes as meltwater entered the system we conclude that basal water pressure in calving glaciers is important for glacier dynamics and closely connected to climate conditions

digital optical televiewing of ice boreholes digital optical televiewing recently developed to log and map terrestrial boreholes provides a complete orientated image of borehole walls at a resolution of 1 mm along hole and typically

shear resistance and continuity of subglacial till hydrology rules the field observations of g s boulton stimulated widespread interest in deformable beds shear resistance of till in its critical state is insensitive to strain rate and increases linearly with effective pressure during unsteady deformation pseudo viscous shear resistance can be caused by dilation of consolidated tills and resultant pore pressure decline this effect is probably uncommon however because susceptible tills of low hydraulic diffusivity are also those least likely to consolidate significantly during effective pressure transients stick slip motion at whillans ice stream antarctica indicates that its basal till must weaken during rapid slip and strengthen during longer periods of slower slip recurrence intervals for rapid slip episodes there 6 18 hours indicate that till strength variations if driven by changes in pore pressure either related or unrelated to basal freezing are focused in the uppermost several centimeters of the bed ploughing of grains at the bed surface and associated excess pore pressures in adjacent till can account for rate weakening during rapid slip with pore pressure decay causing strengthening between slip episodes by promoting shallow sluggish subglacial water flow and low effective pressure soft beds may help sustain themselves by slowing their own transport soft bed shear resistance kinematics and continuity are problems rooted in subglacial hydrology

in search of ice stream sticky spots the form drag of large bedrock bumps sticking into the base of an ice stream can produce effective sticky spots supporting large basal shear stress bedrock regions surrounded by lubricating till at the same topographic level can cause sticky spots but tend to collect lubricating water and thus are unlikely to support a shear stress of more than a few tenths of a bar unless they contain abundant large bumps raised regions on the ice air surface also can cause moderate increases in the shear stress supported on the bed beneath surveys of large scale bedrock roughness strain grids across the margins of ice surface highs and possibly water pressure measurements in regions of thin or zero till would help identify and characterize sticky spots

positive degree day factors for ablation on the greenland ice sheet studied by energy balance modelling ice ablation is related to air temperature by the positive degree day factor variations of the positive degree day factor in west greenland are studied using an energy balance model to simulate ablation under different conditions degree day factors for simulated and measured ice ablation at nordbogletscher and qaman rssup sermia agree well with values around 8 mm d 1 c 1 degree day factors for snow are less than half those for ice energy balance modelling shows that degree day factors vary with summer mean temperature surface albedo and turbulence but there is only evidence of large positive degree day factors at lower temperatures and with low albedo 0 3 the greatest effect of albedo variations 0 3 0 7 is at lower temperatures while variations in turbulence have greater effect at higher temperatures current models may underestimate runoff from the greenland ice sheet by several tenths because they use a degree day factor for melting ice that is too small for the colder parts of the ice sheet i e the upper ablation area and the northerly margin

new evidence for syntectonic fluid migration across the hinterland foreland transition of the canadian cordillera 1 oxygen isotope data from syntectonic veins thrust faults and wall rocks suggest that fluids infiltrated the western ranges of the rocky mountain foreland from deeper rocks of the dogtooth range during mesozoic contraction this signifies the first such evidence for kilometer scale fluid migration at the hinterland foreland transition of the canadian cordillera fluid infiltration resulted in isotopic depletion in wall rocks and isotopic disequilibrium between veins fluid and their host rocks downstream of a lithologic structural and isotopic shift between predominantly siliciclastic dogtooth range and calcareous western ranges sequences the shift corresponds with an average 18o that is 3 0 higher in the western ranges in the dogtooth range atypically low carbonate values 15 6 0 8 vsmow and the consistency with which vein signatures approach the average bulk rock 18o of individual outcrops indicate fluid buffering by a siliciclastic reservoir and outcrop scale 10 100 m fluid circulation in contrast rocks and veins in the western ranges exhibit a gradational increase in 18o that extends 14 km eastward and up section from the isotopic shift and possess values that are below or at the low end of typical carbonate compositions 16 2 20 9 vsmow furthermore veins systematically exhibit lower oxygen values than their host rocks this implies that the fluids that entered the western ranges were in modest disequilibrium with the rocks through which they flowed we use a one dimensional reactive transport model to infer that rocks in the western ranges experienced a time integrated fluid flux of 1 1 105 mol h2o cm 2 2 4 106 cm3 cm 2 and sluggish reaction kinetics during the flow event

sediment deformation beneath glaciers rheology and geological consequences experiments beneath breidamerkurjokull in iceland have led to development of flow laws for the subglacial till relating strain rate to shear stress and effective pressure and assuming either bingham fluid or nonlinearly viscous fluid behavior water pressures in the till are less than ice pressures and it is suggested that this may lead to infiltration of ice into the sediment which inhibits sliding at the ice sediment interface where water pressures are equal or near to ice pressures infiltration does not occur and sliding may result a one dimensional theory of subglacial deformation is developed in which the empirical flow law is coupled with a model of subglacial hydrology and consolidation this predicts stable states in which subglacial sediment either does not deform or a dilatant deforming horizon forms with positive effective pressures at the ice bed interface or unstable states where zero or negative effective pressures are predicted time dependent analyses show that response times following perturbations of the system may be of the order of 103 years and thus that unsteady behavior may be normal on glaciers flowing over unlithified sediment beds it is suggested that the natural variability of material properties in subglacial sediment beds leads to the development of drumlins on the glacier bed it is suggested that unstable deformation at zero or negative effective stress leads to piping in subglacial sediments at the glacier terminus and the growth of sediment floored subglacial tunnels their frequency is that which is sufficient to draw down subglacial water pressures so as to prevent unstable deformation where they discharge large water volumes subglacial sediments flow laterally toward them producing tunnel valleys this sediment is then removed by water flowing along the axial tunnel tunnel valleys can be regarded as the equivalent in soft sediment areas of eskers in bedrock areas

basal drainage system response to increasing surface melt on the greenland ice sheet surface meltwater reaching the bed of the greenland ice sheet imparts a fundamental control on basal motion sliding speed depends on ice bed coupling dictated by the configuration and pressure of the hydrologic drainage system in situ observations in a four site transect containing 23 boreholes drilled to greenland s bed reveal basal water pressures unfavorable to water draining conduit development extending inland beneath deep ice this finding is supported by numerical analysis based on realistic ice sheet geometry slow meltback of ice walls limits conduit growth inhibiting their capacity to transport increased discharge key aspects of current conceptual models for greenland basal hydrology derived primarily from the study of mountain glaciers appear to be limited to a portion of the ablation zone near the ice sheet margin

seasonal speedup along the western flank of the greenland ice sheet it has been widely hypothesized that a warmer climate in greenland would increase the volume of lubricating surface meltwater reaching the ice bedrock interface accelerating ice flow and increasing mass loss we have assembled a data set that provides a synoptic scale view spanning ice sheet to outlet glacier flow with which to evaluate this hypothesis on the ice sheet these data reveal summer speedups 50 to 100 consistent with but somewhat larger than earlier observations the relative speedup of outlet glaciers however is far smaller 15 furthermore the dominant seasonal influence on jakobshavn isbrae s flow is the calving front s annual advance and retreat with other effects producing outlet glacier speedups an order of magnitude larger seasonal melt s influence on ice flow is likely confined to those regions dominated by ice sheet flow

mechanisms of englacial conduit formation and their implications for subglacial recharge abstract ideas about the character and evolution of englacial drainage systems have been deeply influenced by the theoretical model developed by shreve 1972 movement of water in glaciers journal of glaciology 11 62 205 214 the shreve model is based on three main assumptions 1 englacial drainage is in steady state 2 englacial water will flow along the steepest hydraulic gradient within the glacier and 3 pressure head equals the pressure of the surrounding ice minus a small component due to melting of the walls the shreve model has been widely adopted as a fundamental component of englacial drainage theory there is no evidence however that the model provides a realistic picture of actual glacial drainage systems to evaluate shreve s theory we used speleological techniques to directly survey englacial conduits we mapped a total of 8 25 km of passage in 27 distinct englacial conduits in temperate polythermal cold based and debris covered glaciers between 2005 and 2008 new information reported here is supplemented by published data on 40 other englacial conduits located worldwide and surveyed to ice depths of 176 m using speleological techniques in all cases englacial drainage systems consisted of a single unbranching conduit englacial conduit morphologies were found to be intimately linked to the orientation of a glacier s principal stresses or the presence of pre existing lines of high hydraulic conductivity if a sufficient supply of water is available hydrofracturing forms vertical conduits in zones of longitudinal extension and subhorizontal conduits where longitudinal stresses are compressive on unfractured glacier surfaces relatively shallow subhorizontal conduits with migrating nickpoints form by cut and closure provided channel incision is significantly faster than surface lowering conduits can also form along permeable debris filled crevasse traces that connect supraglacial lake basins of different potential our results suggest that shreve type englacial drainage systems do not exist and implies that englacial conduits can only penetrate through thick ice to recharge the bed where supraglacial water bodies either intersect or are advected through zones of acceleration

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

alpine subglacial hydrology abstract the size and shape of subglacial flow pathways exert a strong influence over the pressure and speed at which meltwaters are routed through glaciers these characteristics in turn influence glacier sliding velocity and the quantity and quality of bulk meltwaters discharging from glaciers in this paper we summarise four empirical research approaches that have been developed to improve our understanding of the subglacial hydrology of predominantly temperate based alpine glaciers investigations of bulk meltwater discharge and chemistry tracer studies proglacial bedrock investigations and borehole investigations as a result of linking these studies to conceptual or numerical models three arborescent and four non arborescent or distributed subglacial drainage configurations are described these drainage networks may be neither spatially nor temporally persistent but may compete with and replace each other on a seasonal basis a qualitative model of the temporal and spatial evolution of a typical alpine subglacial drainage system is advanced on the basis of research conducted at haut glacier d arolla switzerland

ribbed moraines in northern manitoba canada characteristics and preservation as part of a subglacial bed mosaic near the core regions of ice sheets abstract ribbed moraines are enigmatic glacial landforms for which different models with contrasting paleoglaciologic implications have been proposed to explain their formation despite the great deal of attention this type of landform has received over the last several decades ribbed moraine fields in northern manitoba canada are among the largest in the world but have been seldom studied ribbed moraines in this part of the world overlie the low relief canadian shield are not constrained by topography and are part of a spatial subglacial landform assemblage associated with drumlinoid ridges within palimpsest and relict type glacial terrain zones field observations herein provide new insights into the characteristics of these transverse to ice flow ridges at landscape mapping and spatial analysis and landform internal structure using high resolution shear wave s wave seismic reflection surveys sedimentological characteristics clast fabric analyses scales two main types of ribbed moraine are recognized pristine high amplitude straight crested ridges and secondarily modified subdued drumlinized ridges ribbed moraine in northeast manitoba consist of massive matrix supported till at surface which is similar in matrix texture and composition to the regional till sheet though pristine moraines show a higher concentration of boulders a seismic profile reveals subparallel to surface layered stratigraphy with only minor folding and no major unconformities stacking or faulting the demonstrated fragmentary nature of ribbed moraine fields the inherited signature of the till within these fields the secondary patchy drumlinization of the ridges and the more abundant granitoid outcrops in areas of intense modification all suggest that subglacial ribbed moraine formed from pre existing sediments and were later preserved and or partially reworked through a regional mosaic of shifting subglacial bed conditions we therefore make the case that pristine unmodified moraines were preserved beneath stable sticky spots we support a link between ribbed moraine and widespread cold based and or dewatered subglacial conditions in inner core regions of ice sheets but for reasons of preservation and not necessarily formation

formation of mega scale glacial lineations observed beneath a west antarctic ice stream most discharge from large ice sheets takes place through fast flowing ice streams and their speed is strongly modulated by interactions between the ice and the underlying sediments seismic surveys and investigations through boreholes have revealed a spatial association between fast ice flow and saturated deformable sediments nevertheless our knowledge of the morphology of the interface between ice and sediments is still limited resulting in only rudimentary understanding of the basal boundary conditions beneath ice streams and the generation of subglacial bedforms here we present radar data from the bed of a west antarctic ice stream that reveal the presence of mega scale glacial lineations we combine these data with previously published seismic data and show that these lineations develop in areas of dilatant deforming till and are part of a dynamic sedimentary system that undergoes significant change by erosion and deposition on decadal timescales we find that the mega scale glacial lineations are indistinguishable from those found on beds of palaeo ice streams providing conclusive evidence for the hypothesis that highly elongate bedforms are a characteristic of fast flow regions in ice sheets

subglacial clast behaviour and its implication for till fabric development new results derived from wireless subglacial probe experiments this study has investigated the three dimensional movement of clasts within deformation till using embedded wireless probes these probes were part of an environmental sensor network which measured subglacial properties temperature water pressure resistivity case strain and tilt six times a day and relayed that data via radio to the glacier surface where they were forwarded and broadcast on line the systemwas installed at briksdalsbreen norway and operated from august 2004 until august 2006 approximately 2000 probe days worth of data were collected with an increase in performance 41 more readings during the second year the probes showed similar patterns of water pressure rises throughout the two years but with slightly different magnitudes and timings these changes in water pressure could be related to clast behaviour the probes decreased their dip over the year and the rate of change was related to an increase in glacier velocity after initial changes in dip the probes experienced changes in orientation followed by rotation about the a axis this continuous rotation was similar to the motion suggested by jeffery 1922 the motion of ellipsoidal particles immersed in a viscous fluid proceedings of the royal society of london series a 102 161 179 for the behaviour of clasts within a viscous material in addition some probes also showed short frequent dip oscillations in spring and autumn which were interpreted to reflect stick slip events similar to lodging and demonstrated how local conditions can interrupt the predicted rotation pattern overall it is demonstrated that when water pressures were high decoupling occurred associated with basal sliding and dip oscillations and when water pressures fell the ice and sediment were coupled and till deformation occurred these events happened during summer and autumn it is this combination of lodgement and deformation that builds up both a complex but predictable fabric and a resultant composite till sedimentology

a wireless subglacial probe for deep ice applications we present the design and first results from two experiments using a wireless subglacial sensor system wise that is able to transmit data through 2500 m thick ice energy consumption of the probes is minimized enabling the transmission of data for at least 10 years in july 2010 the first prototype of the system was used to measure subglacial pressure at the base and a temperature profile consisting of 23 probes in two 600 m deep holes at russell glacier a land terminating part of the west greenland ice sheet near kangerlussuaq the time series of subglacial pressure show very good agreement between data from the wise system and the wired reference system the wireless measured temperature data were validated by comparison with the theoretical decrease of melting point with water pressure inside the water filled hole directly after installation to test the depth range of the wise system a second experiment using three different probe types and two different surface antennas was performed inside the 2537 m deep hole at neem it is demonstrated that with the proper combination of transmission power and surface antenna type the wise system transmits data through 2500 m thick ice

the glacial landsystem of fjallsjokull iceland spatial and temporal evolution of process form regimes at an active temperate glacier this study assesses the spatial and temporal evolution of the glacial landsystem signature at fjallsjokull southeast iceland using a mapping of the glacial geomorphology and surficial geology and b repeat uncrewed aerial vehicle uav surveys a small scale 1 15 000 scale landsystem map has been compiled using lidar data 2011 2012 and historical aerial photographs 1945 1998 along with a large scale 1 2000 scale map based on uav imagery from may 2019 from our mapping and uav surveys we identify sediment landform assemblages that are typical of active temperate glacial landsystems including recessional push squeeze moraines and intervening flutings overridden moraine arcs proglacial outwash sandur fans and linear ribbon sandar we recognize three landform zones that are defined by changes in moraine morphology and the nature of proglacial outwash deposition 1 the outer foreland is characterized by proglacial outwash fans overridden moraine arcs and broadly linear recessional moraines 2 the middle foreland contains sawtooth moraines and linear sandar and 3 the innermost zone comprises extremely sawtooth and hairpin moraines as well as associated crevasse squeeze ridge limbs this landform zonation reflects spatio temporal changes in moraine forming processes and outwash deposition as determined by changes in snout morphology and proglacial drainage characteristics within this general tripartite zonation we also identify localized azonal intrazonal sediment landform assemblages that are not typically found at active temperate glaciers including ice cored hummocky terrain and localized kame and kettle topography repeat uav surveying in 2016 2019 has allowed us to capture and quantify recent intrazonal landsystem change at the southern glacier margin we identify a switch from moraine formation to the development of ice cored terrain and an ice cored esker complex in association with the uncovering of a depositional overdeepening our study demonstrates the important role that variations in local boundary conditions e g topography can play in the process form response of individual active temperate outlet glaciers contributing to the expanding database on modern glacial landsystems

abrupt glacier motion and reorganization of basal shear stress following the establishment of a connected drainage system three episodes of strong basal motion occurred at trapridge glacier yukon territory canada on 11 june 1995 following the establishment of a connected subglacial drainage system responses to these spring events are noted in the records for 42 instruments and were recorded throughout the 60 000 m study area strong basal motion during the events is indicated by ploughmeter load bolt and vertical strain records and abrupt pressure changes in several transducer records denote damage caused by extreme pressure pulses these pressure pulses generated by the abrupt basal motion also resulted in the failure of seven pressure sensors records for pressure turbidity and conductivity sensors indicate that basal drainage patterns did not change significantly during the events geophone records suggest that the episodes of basal motion were precipitated by the gradual failure of a sticky spot following hydraulic connection of part of the study area this failure resulted in the transfer of basal stress to the unconnected region of the bed during the course of the events no evidence for strong basal motion is seen in the instrument records for several weeks following the events suggesting that the mechanical adjustments resulted in a stable configuration of basal stresses this event illustrates how unstable situations can be quickly accommodated by mechanical adjustments at the glacier bed

rheological nonlinearity and flow instability in the deforming bed mechanism of ice stream motion contrary to what has recently been assumed in modeling the proposed deforming bed mechanism for the rapid motion of antarctic ice streams the rheology of water saturated till is probably highly nonlinear according to information from soil mechanics and preliminary experiments on till from the base of ice stream b the equivalent flow law exponent n is probably as high as 100 and the nonlinearities of the shear stress and effective pressure dependences are closely linked the high nonlinearity has important consequences for the deforming bed mechanism a flow system operating by this mechanism can be unstable as a result of feedback from the generation of basal water by shear heating of basal till the short term feedback effect is analyzed for a perturbation in a model ice stream in which the basal meltwater is transported through a distributed system of narrow gap conduits at the ice till interface although the analysis is approximate and some of the system parameters are poorly known the results suggest that the deforming bed mechanism is unstable for n 20 the apparent lack of such an instability in the currently active ice streams implies that their motion is controlled not by the deforming bed mechanism but by some other as yet unidentified mechanism

borehole video analysis of a temperate glacier englacial and subglacial structure implications for glacier flow models video observations made in 16 boreholes drilled through a deforming valley glacier affirm that temperate glacier ice may be reasonably well represented as homogeneous in glacier flow models but raise warnings about the complexities of basal boundary conditions and glacier sliding discrete englacial structures including clear ice layers voids and water conduits compose a total of 3 of the ice mass planar features clear ice layers are oriented near vertical and are not aligned with the sense of shear strain meaning that the layers probably do not influence the homogeneity of the strain both direct observations of the ice and analysis of its light reflectance suggest an increase in crystal size and decrease in bubble content with depth however previous laboratory work indicates that such changes are unimportant in terms of the viscosity of the ice observations of the basal boundary or sliding surface indicate that there are areas of both hard bedrock and soft deformable till which should cause spacial and temporal gradients in sliding rate

weathering reactions and hyporheic exchange controls on stream water chemistry in a glacial meltwater stream in the mcmurdo dry valleys 1 in the mcmurdo dry valleys antarctica dilute glacial meltwater flows down wellestablished streambeds to closed basin lakes during the austral summer during the 6 12 week flow season a hyporheic zone develops in the saturated sediment adjacent to the streams longer dry valley streams have higher concentrations of major ions than shorter streams the longitudinal increases in si and k suggest that primary weathering contributes to the downstream solute increase the hypothesis that weathering reactions in the hyporheiczonecontrolstreamchemistrywastestedbymodelingthedownstreamincreasein solute concentration in von guerard stream in taylor valley the average rates of solute supplied from these sources over the 5 2 km length of the stream were 6 1 10 9 mol si l 1 m 1 and 3 7 10 9 mol k l 1 m 1 yielding annual dissolved si loads of 0 02 1 30 mol si m 2 of watershed land surface silicate minerals in streambed sediment were analyzed to determine the representative surface area of minerals in the hyporheic zone subject to primary weathering two strategies were evaluated to compute sediment surface area normalized weathering rates the first applies a best linear fit to synoptic data in order to calculate a constant downstream solute concentration gradient dc dx constant weathering rate contribution crc method the second uses a transient storage model to simulate dc dx representing both hyporheic exchange and chemical weathering hydrologic exchange he method geometric surface area normalized dissolution rates of the silicate minerals in the stream ranged from 0 6 10 12 mol si m 2 s 1 to 4 5 10 12 mol si m 2 s 1 and 0 4 10 12 mol k m 2 s 1 to 1 9 10 12 mol k m 2 s 1 these values are an order of magnitude lower than geometric surface area normalized weathering rates determined in laboratory studies and are an order of magnitude greater than geometric surface area normalized weathering rates determined in a warmer wetter setting in temperate basins despite the cold temperatures lack of precipitation and lack of organic material these results suggest that the continuous saturation and rapid flushing of the sediment due to hyporheic exchange facilitates weathering in dry valley streams index terms 1045 geochemistry low temperature geochemistry 1806 hydrology chemistry of fresh water 1625 global change geomorphology and weathering 1824 1886 1890 hydrology wetlands keywords hyporheic zone chemical weathering flow path antarctica stream

winter motion mediates dynamic response of the greenland ice sheet to warmer summers 1 we present ice velocities from a land terminating transect extending 115 km into the western greenland ice sheet during three contrasting melt years 2009 2011 to determine whether enhanced melting accelerates dynamic mass loss we find no significant correlation between surface melt and annual ice flow there is however a positive correlation between melt and summer ice displacement but a negative correlation with winter displacement this response is consistent with hydro dynamic coupling enhanced summer ice flow results from longer periods of increasing surface melting and greater duration ice surface to bed connections while reduced winter motion is explicable by drainage of high basal water pressure regions by larger more extensive subglacial channels despite mean interannual surface melt variability of up to 70 mean annual ice velocities changed by 7 5 increased summer melting thereby preconditions the ice bed interface for reduced winter motion resulting in limited dynamic sensitivity to interannual variations in surface melting

seasonal changes in the morphology of the subglacial drainage system haut glacier d arolla switzerland dye tracing techniques were used to investigate the glacier wide pattern of change in the englacial subglacial drainage system of haut glacier d arolla during the ablation seasons of 1990 and 1991 analysis of breakthrough curve characteristics indicate that over the course of a melt season a system of major channels developed by headward growth at the expense of a hydraulically inefficient distributed system by the end of the melt season this channel system extended at least 3 3 km from the snout of the 4 km long glacier and drained the bulk of supraglacially derived meltwater passing through the glacier the upper limit of the channel system closely followed the retreating snowline up glacier rates of headward channel growth reached c 65 m d 1 although these rates decreased in the upper 1 km of the glacier where snowline retreat exposed a patchy firn aquifer it appears that the removal of snow with its high albedo and significant water storage capacity from the glacier surface resulted in a dramatic increase in the volume of runoff into moulins and in the peakedness of daily runoff cycles this induced transient high water pressures within the distributed drainage system which caused it to evolve rapidly into a channelised system it is therefore likely that at a local scale channel growth occurred down glacier from moulins and that the overall up glacier directed pattern of channel formation was caused by the retreating snowline exposing new moulins and crevasses to inputs of ice derived meltwater damping of diurnal melt inputs by storage in the firm aquifer accounts for the slowing of channel growth in the upper glacier 1998 john wiley sons ltd

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

differentiation of subglacial conditions on soft and hard bed settings and implications for ice sheet dynamics a case study from north central poland we reconstruct patterns of subglacial processes on a hard bedrock and a soft bed under the southern sector of scandinavian ice sheet sis occurring in the basal till of the late saalian glaciation at the wapienno barcin and mlodocin sites north central poland based on detailed sedimentological studies two phases of sis transgression were recognised in the initial phase of the transgression the sis advanced onto a frozen substrate continuous permafrost the low permeability of the substratum led to a high subglacial water pressure swp and increased basal sliding the local increase of swp led to the development of different types of structures and sediments on a hard bedrock with low swp abrasion predominated and linear structures were developing while in the case of high swp the ice was decoupled from the hard substrate pressurised liquefied sediment flowed and structures of the p form and s form type developed on a soft bed the ice bed contact was of a mosaic type and the ice movement had an ice stream character the ice stream developed towards the east in the marginal zone of the sis and used a w e oriented valley filled by the wapienno formation fluvial complex during a later phase the ice movement was slower and did not have a stream character its direction changed to se the deposition of the main part of the diamicton occurred mainly as a result of the lodgement process

supraglacial forcing of subglacial drainage in the ablation zone of the greenland ice sheet 1 we measure hydrological parameters in meltwater draining from an outlet glacier in west greenland to investigate seasonal changes in the structure and behaviour of the hydrological system of a large catchment in the greenland ice sheet gris our data reveal seasonal upglacier expansion and increase in hydraulic efficiency of the subglacial drainage system across a catchment 600 km2 to distances 50 km from the ice sheet margin this expansion occurs episodically in response to the drainage of surface meltwaters into a hitherto inefficient subglacial drainage system as new input locations become active progressively further upglacier this system is similar to alpine glaciers these observations provide the first synopsis of seasonal hydrological behaviour in the ablation zone of the gris

ice stream sticky spots a review of their identification and influence beneath contemporary and palaeo ice streams rapidly flowing ice streams are the arterial drainage routes in continental ice sheets and exert a major influence on ice sheet mass balance recent observations have revealed that ice stream flow exhibits considerable variability with relatively rapid changes taking place in speed and direction this spatial and temporal variability is intimately linked to the conditions at the base of the ice streams and the distribution of localised patches of basal friction known as sticky spots in this paper we provide a detailed review of sticky spot observations from both contemporary and palaeo ice stream beds in order to better understand their nature and influence observations and theoretical considerations reveal four primary causes of stickiness i bedrock bumps ii till free areas iii areas of strong well drained till and iv freeze on of subglacial meltwater these may act together in one location or in isolation and a progressive increase in their distribution could lead to ice stream shut down bedrock bumps are influential under active ice streams where they provide form drag and can create thinner ice which increases the likelihood of basal freeze on increased bed roughness may prevent the lateral migration of some ice streams but bedrock bumps are unlikely to cause ice stream shut down because over long time scales ice stream erosion might be expected to reduce their amplitude the influence of till free areas beneath an ice stream will depend critically on the amount of water that might be drawn out of the surrounding till to lubricate such areas they are likely to be most important in ice stream onset zones but their identification has proved difficult beneath active ice streams if an ice stream operates solely by till deformation it is conceivable that a progressive increase in the exposure of till free areas could lead to shut down through a process of sediment exhaustion areas of strong well drained till have been identified beneath both active and ancient ice streams and are most likely to result from the reorganisation of subglacial meltwater the collapse of an inefficient cannalised system to a more efficient channelised system can occur rapidly and this mechanism has been hypothesised as a candidate for ice stream shut down in both contemporary and palaeo settings basal freeze on has also been observed and inferred from beneath modern and palaeo ice streams and a reduction in basal meltwater supply coupled with ice stream drawdown and the advection of cold ice increases the likelihood of switching off an ice stream a paucity of data from ice stream sticky spots limits a better understanding of their nature distribution and evolution beneath ice streams future technological advances are likely to improve the resolution of the data collected from the beds of modern ice streams but well preserved palaeo ice stream beds also hold potential for investigating their influence on ice stream flow and we present simple landsystems models to aid their identification such data will considerably enhance the basal boundary condition in ice stream models which will ultimately refine our predictions of the response of contemporary ice sheets to future changes in climate

decadal slowdown of a land terminating sector of the greenland ice sheet despite warming ice flow along land terminating margins of the greenland ice sheet gis varies considerably in response to fluctuating inputs of surface meltwater to the bed of the ice sheet such inputs lubricate the ice bed interface transiently speeding up the flow of ice greater melting results in faster ice motion during summer but slower motion over the subsequent winter owing to the evolution of an efficient drainage system that enables water to drain from regions of the ice sheet bed that have a high basal water pressure however the impact of hydrodynamic coupling on ice motion over decadal timescales remains poorly constrained here we show that annual ice motion across an 8 000 km 2 land terminating region of the west gis margin extending to 1 100 m above sea level was 12 slower in 2007 14 compared with 1985 94 despite a 50 increase in surface meltwater production our findings suggest that over these three decades hydrodynamic coupling in this section of the ablation zone resulted in a net slowdown of ice motion not a speed up as previously postulated increases in meltwater production from projected climate warming may therefore further reduce the motion of land terminating margins of the gis our findings suggest that these sectors of the ice sheet are more resilient to the dynamic impacts of enhanced meltwater production than previously thought

basal conditions beneath a soft bedded polythermal surge type glacier bakaninbreen svalbard original article can be found at http www sciencedirect com science journal 10406182 copyright elsevier ltd and the international union for quaternary research inqua doi 10 1016 s1040 6182 01 00053 2 full text of this article is not available in the uhra

tv video observations of bed and basal sliding on storglaciaren sweden four boreholes in storglaciaren a small valley glacier in northernsweden were inspected with a video camera in two of the boreholes the apparentglacier bed was filmed in one borehole the bed was found to be composed of softsediment but in the other it consisted of bedrock in the latter the camera moved5 6 mm relative to the bed during an 80 min period the recorded camera movementshowed a background motion which is in the expected range of basal sliding superimposed on the background motion a jerky motion of a high speed spike wasfound the jerky motion is interpreted as a stress release induced by local topographyat the ice bed interface

reflections on soft subglacial beds as a mosaic of deforming and stable spots abstract much discussion regarding subglacial processes is centred around the question of how soft beds respond to ice overriding in particular how widespread and penetrative is their deformation how does it affect the ice stability and what are the consequences for large scale sediment redistribution patterns contrasting views have been proposed which are difficult to verify and reconcile in the light of scarcity of agreed criteria to identify deforming beds here we suggest that soft beds under warm based glaciers can be envisaged as a mosaic of deforming and stable spots transient in time and space according to changes in the control parameters at the ice bed interface the subglacial mosaic model is consistent with field data showing heavily deformed beds interspersed with largely undisturbed beds it is suggested that deformation found in tills is a cumulative effect of strain within a relatively thin ephemeral deforming spots under the ice sole affecting the till as it accretes during ice overriding in accord with the coulomb plastic rheology the role of clast ploughing in bed deformation is emphasised

degree day glacier mass balance modelling with applications to glaciers in iceland norway and greenland a degree day glacier mass balance model is applied to three glaciers in iceland norway and greenland for which detailed mass balance measurements are available over a period of several years model results are in good agreement with measured variations in the mass balance with elevation over the time periods considered for each glacier in addition the model explains 60 80 of the year to year variance in the elevation averaged summer season mass balance measurements on the glaciers using a single parameter set for each glacier the increase in ablation on the glaciers due to a warming of 2 c is predicted to range from about 1 m w e year 1 at the highest elevations to about 2 5 m w e year 1 at the lowest elevations predicted changes in the winter balance measured between fixed date are relatively small except at the lowest elevations on the icelandic and norwegian glaciers where the winter balance is significantly reduced equilibrium line altitudes are raised by 200 300 m on the icelandic and norwegian glaciers except at the highest elevations the winter balance of the icelandic and norwegian glaciers is predicted to decrease even if the warming is accompanied by a 10 increase in the precipitation no firm evidence of a climate related variation in the degree day factors or in the temperature lapse rate on the same glacier could be found the model furthermore reproduces large variations in the mass balance with elevation and from year to year on each glacier using the same parameter set we assume therefore that these parameters will not change significantly for the climate scenarios considered here

glacial hydrological system characterization using ground penetrating radar hydrological systems near the terminus of a high arctic glacier and a proglacial icing on bylot island canada were investigated using ground penetrating radar gpr the ice thickness and the location and depth of tunnels within the glacier and icing were imaged modelling of the gpr response was utilized to predict the data quality and to assist in its interpretation the unique properties of the ice enabled velocity determinations from the diffraction patterns generated by point source reflectors as well as traditional velocity surveys the propagation velocity of the radar pulses through the ice depended on the air and water content in the ice the identification of drainage tunnels was attained through pulse polarity analysis and interpolation between the profiles in gridded surveys it was found that reflectivity analysis may enable gpr to be used for acquiring three dimensional information on the thermal structure of glaciers the much more complicated structure of the icing was imaged with higher frequency antennae and it was found that general ice types could be mapped using radar stratigraphical analysis both buried slush mounds and subsurface channel fills were identified within the icing a portion of the icing near the centre of the valley floor that has persisted perennially for over 50 years was found to be sitting on a slightly higher area of the valley bottom and thus was not subjected to the same hydrothermal erosional forces as the edges of the icing setting up a feed back loop encouraging the preservation of the central core of ice and promoting the destruction and rebuilding of the edges every year

review of subglacial hydro mechanical coupling trapridge glacier yukon territory canada abstract the interaction of basal processes with the subglacial drainage system is a critical issue in understanding glacier dynamics since the recognition that many glaciers and ice masses overlie soft sediments rather than hard bedrock much research has been undertaken to investigate how mechanical and hydrological conditions of a deformable substrate control the coupling at the ice bed interface and thus affect fast ice flow and glacier surging in research undertaken on trapridge glacier a small surge type glacier in the st elias mountains yukon territory canada we have combined extensive field investigations using novel measurement techniques and theoretical modelling to study hydro mechanical coupling processes measurements of subglacial water pressure indicate that the basal water system can be dramatically inhomogeneous both spatially and temporally since ice bed coupling is strongly influenced by subglacial water pressure the stresses at the bed are also markedly heterogeneous and are expected to form a patchwork distribution which mimics the pressure distribution of the basal water system this heterogeneity in the stress field at the ice bed interface introduces a pronounced variability to the basal motion mechanics as such basal sliding and subglacial sediment deformation are not steady and continuous processes instead the variability of the subglacial water system leads to a spatial and temporal interplay of increased ice bed coupling at low water pressures at one site or time with ice bed decoupling during rising water pressures at other sites or times thus on the one hand there is downglacier shear deformation of the bed and accumulation of elastic strain in ice and sediment while on the other hand there is enhanced slip sliding of the glacier and upglacier shear motion of the bed due to an elastic relaxation of the sediment

evolution of the internal drainage system in the lower part of the ablation area of storglaci aren sweden during the 1989 melt season ten tracer experiments were conducted to investigate seasonal diurnal and spatial variations in the internal drainage system in the ablation area of storglaciaren sweden dye was injected into moulins and dye concentration and discharge were monitored in two streams at the glacier terminus sydjakk and nordjakk dye emerged only in sydjakk transit velocities ranged from 0 07 to 0 29 m s implying that drainage was through a well defined conduit system velocity and discharge relations suggest that these conduits are part of a multi branched arborescent network of individually braided wide low passages a progressive decline in dispersivity during the early part of the melt season reflects structural changes in these conduits presumably including a decrease in the degree of braiding and an increase in size the system reached its late season configuration in early august by which time the energy dissipated by the flowing water would have sufficed to melt between 0 7 and 21 m 3 of ice per meter of conduit length depending on conduit size potential closure rates exceed melt rates on conduit walls throughout most of the drainage system and so conduits are probably full of water during periods of higher daily discharge with water pressures exceeding atmospheric pressure variations in tracer return curves and dispersivity on a diurnal time scale also appear to reflect changes in the degree of braiding in this case resulting from drowning of low divides between channels as discharge increases

short term variability in greenland ice sheet motion forced by time varying meltwater drainage implications for the relationship between subglacial drainage system behavior and ice velocity 1 high resolution measurements of ice motion along a 120 km transect in a land terminating section of the gris reveal short term velocity variations 1 day which are forced by rapid variations in meltwater input to the subglacial drainage system from the ice sheet surface the seasonal changes in ice velocity at low elevations 1000 m are dominated by events lasting from 1 day to 1 week although daily cycles are largely absent at higher elevations reflecting different patterns of meltwater input using a simple model of subglacial conduit behavior we show that the seasonal record of ice velocity can be understood in terms of a time varying water input to a channelized subglacial drainage system our investigation substantiates arguments that variability in theduration and rate rather than absolute volume of meltwater delivery to the subglacial drainage system are important controls on seasonal patterns of subglacial water pressure and therefore ice velocity we suggest that interpretations of hydro dynamic behavior in land terminating sections of the gris margin which rely on steady state drainage theories are unsuitable for making predictions about the effect of increased summer ablation on future rates of ice motion

englacial and subglacial water flow at skalafellsjokull iceland derived from ground penetrating radar in situ glacsweb probe and borehole water level measurements we reconstruct englacial and subglacial drainage at skalafellsjokull iceland using ground penetrating radar gpr common offset surveys borehole studies and glacsweb probe data we find that englacial water is not stored within the glacier water content 0 0 3 instead the glacier is mostly impermeable and meltwater is able to pass quickly through the main body of the glacier via crevasses and moulins once at the glacier bed water is stored within a thin 1 m layer of debris rich basal ice 2 water content and the till the hydraulic potential mapped across the survey area indicates that when water pressures are high most of the year water flows parallel to the margin and emerges 3 km down glacier at an outlet tongue gpr data indicates that these flow pathways may have formed a series of braided channels we show that this glacier has a very low water storage capacity but an efficient englacial drainage network for transferring water to the glacier bed and therefore it has the potential to respond rapidly to changes in melt water inputs

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

marine ice sheet collapse potentially under way for the thwaites glacier basin west antarctica resting atop a deep marine basin the west antarctic ice sheet has long been considered prone to instability using a numerical model we investigated the sensitivity of thwaites glacier to ocean melt and whether its unstable retreat is already under way our model reproduces observed losses when forced with ocean melt comparable to estimates simulated losses are moderate 1 mm per year of sea level rise collapse in the different simulations within the range of 200 to 900 years

comparison of thermal structure and evolution between neighboring subarctic glaciers 1 the distribution of cold and temperate ice within glaciers and ice sheets affects processes relevant to englacial and basal hydrology sliding and material rheology thermal regimes in turn are shaped by glacier and ice sheet dynamics as well as environmental setting we investigate the thermal structures of two small 7 km2 neighboring glaciers in the st elias mountains of southwestern yukon canada using ice penetrating radar and borehole temperature measurements our data reveal polythermal regimes in both glaciers that are strongly influenced by accumulation zone meltwater entrapment suggesting a climatic control on thermal structure differences in hypsometry and glacier dynamics nevertheless result in observed variations in the distribution of temperate ice between the two sites experiments with a thermomechanically coupled flow band model corroborate the strong control of meltwater entrapment on thermal structure and suggest a generally minimal role for strain heating an exception to this occurs where localized basal sliding produces lateral shearing and thus enhanced heat generation time dependent model simulations suggest that the future thermal evolution of the two glaciers may differ and therefore simple parameterizations of thermal response based on regional climate may not capture realistic variability between individual glaciers despite these differences both glaciers are ultimately expected to become fully cold prior to disappearing under negative mass balance conditions

deformation of till beneath ice stream b west antarctica the behaviour and possible instability of the west antarctic ice sheet depend fundamentally on the dynamics of the large ice streams which drain it model calculations show that most ice stream velocity arises at the bed1 2 and radar sounding has shown the bed to be wet3 but the basal boundary condition is not well understood seismic evidence from the upstream b camp upb on the siple coast of west antarctica4 shows that the ice stream there rests on a layer of unconsolidated sediment averaging 5 or 6 m thick in which the water pressure is only 50 kpa less than the overburden pressure because this thin layer occurs well inland beneath an active ice sheet and rests on a surface showing flutes4 characteristic of glacial erosion5 we presume that it is glacial till we propose here that deformation within the till is the primary mechanism by which the ice stream moves and we discuss implications of this hypothesis

black box modeling of the subglacial water system measurements of water pressure beneath trapridge glacier yukon territory canada yield the following generalizations about subglacial conditions in the studied region 1 even over short distances the subglacial water system is highly heterogeneous 2 the subglacial water system consists of at least two distinct components which we refer to as the connected and unconnected water systems 3 regions of the glacier bed can switch back and forth from being part of the connected or part of the unconnected water system 4 large spatial pressure gradients can exist within the unconnected water system and between the connected and unconnected systems 5 rapid pressure variations can occur in the unconnected water system 6 pressure variations in the unconnected water system do not match those in the connected system and can in fact be strongly anticorrelated with pressure variations in the connected system if the water pressure variations in the connected system are viewed as a forcing and those in the unconnected system as a response to this forcing the input output relation between forcing and response can be efficiently represented as a low order nonlinear ordinary differential equation the response of the unconnected system to forcing from the connected system is governed by time constants having approximate magnitudes of 1 7 hours and 7 4 hours that we believe are associated with process rates for substrate compression and pore water diffusion respectively

microearthquakes and subglacial conditions 1 ten passive seismic recording stations were deployed in a 9 km by 6 km array on rutford ice stream west antarctica to detect microearthquakes from the ice stream bed the array covered an area where a varying distribution of basal sedimentary conditions had been identified from seismic reflection surveys and interpreted as areas of both basal sliding and subglacial sediment deformation the passive seismic experiment was designed to give an independent confirmation of this interpretation as basal sliding is believed to be associated with the release of more acoustic energy than a deforming bed the results show that this is the case basal sliding producing six times more events this confirms that the spatial pattern of basal conditions does indeed reflect the distribution of different ice flow mechanisms it also shows that microearthquake monitoring can be a valuable new technique for mapping ice stream basal conditions over wide areas

major changes in ice stream dynamics during deglaciation of the north western margin of the laurentide ice sheet abstract victoria island lies at the north western limit of the former north american laurentide ice sheet in the canadian arctic archipelago and displays numerous cross cutting glacial lineations previous work suggests that several ice streams operated in this region during the last wisconsinan glaciation and played a major role in ice sheet dynamics and the delivery of icebergs into the arctic ocean this paper produces the first detailed synthesis of their behaviour from the last glacial maximum through to deglaciation 21 9 5 cal ka bp based on new mapping and a previously published radiocarbon constrained ice sheet margin chronology over 70 discrete ice flow events flow sets are fitted to the ice margin configuration to allow identification of several ice streams ranging in size from large and long lived thousands of years to much smaller and short lived hundreds of years the reconstruction depicts major ice streams in m clure strait and amundsen gulf which underwent relatively rapid retreat from the continental shelf edge at some time between 15 2 and 14 1 cal ka bp a period which encompasses climatic warming and rapid sea level rise meltwater pulse 1a following this overall retreat was slower and the ice streams exhibited asynchronous behaviour the amundsen gulf ice stream continued to operate during ice margin retreat whereas the m clure strait ice stream ceased operating and was replaced by an ice divide within 1000 years this ice divide was subsequently obliterated by another short lived phase of ice streaming in m clintock channel 13 cal ka bp the timing of this large ice discharge event coincides with the onset of the younger dryas subsequently a minor ice divide developed once again in m clintock channel before final deglaciation of the island shortly after 9 5 cal ka bp it is concluded that large ice streams at the nw margin of the laurentide ice sheet equivalent in size to the hudson strait ice stream underwent major changes during deglaciation resulting in punctuated delivery of icebergs into the arctic ocean published radiocarbon dates constrain this punctuated delivery as far as is possible within the limits imposed by their precision and we note their coincidence with pulses of meltwater delivery inferred from numerical modelling and ocean sediment cores

rapid soft bed sliding of the puget glacial lobe the puget lobe of the late pleis inferred to be lodgment till based on the tocene cordilleran ice sheet advanced into presence of oriented stones oriented stria western washington over a thick sequence of tions on stones overconsolidation and unlithified sediments the basal drag due to deformation features sliding over this surface was calculated by 1 this paper investigates the rapid motion of idealizing the sediment bed as a rigid planar the puget lobe over its bed of deformable sedi surface scattered with roughness elements cor ment studies of large vanished glaciers com responding to individual sedimentary particles plement basal motion studies of modern glaci and 2 taking the minimum reconstructed slid ers in which the glacier geometry and velocity ing velocity to be 500 m yr 1 the calculated are well constrained but the characteristics of basal drag minimized by choices of parameters the bed can only be inferred from observations is 400 kpa much higher than the reconstructed over very limited areas kamb et al 1985 gravitational driving stress of 40 kpa indi seismic measurements blankenship et al 1986 cating that a rigid bed and low water pressure or modelling lingle and brown 1987 obser are not consistent with the glacierfs rapid vations on glacier beds recently exposed by motion high subglacial water pressure aver glacial retreat can provide information about aging 90 of the ice overburden 10 mpa is conditions during a somewhat greater time span inferred from overconsolidation of subglacial but are restricted to the marginal environ clays the occurrence and deformation of ment in addition inferences about the bed of water deposited sediments within the till and modern glaciers are limited by the short dura the requirement to drain large quantities of tion and seasonality of the observations a water from the interface suggest that water notable benefit of studying the beds of pieis pressure reached 99 of the ice overburden tocene glaciers is that they record basal ploughing of till by ice entrained clasts per conditions for intervals spanning entire glaci vasive shearing and finally ice bed separa ations and accessible far from the glacier tion become possible as water pressure margins increases at the low inferred effective nor after a brief summary of data available from mal stress the basal drag is reduced from the previous reconstructions of the puget lobe the rigid bed case by water layers which decouple basal conditions of the lobe are explored along the smallest particles from the glacier sole two complementary lines we first present cal and ploughing which reduces the resistance culations of basal drag due to glacier sliding offered by the largest particles the limited for different models of till bed roughness that shear strain observed in much of the till indicate that rapid sliding requires very low implies pervasive shearing did not contribute effective stresses and extensive ice bed significantly to ice motion basal motion was decoupling or ploughing second we summarize confined to the ice bed interface or to dis geological and geotechnical data that indicate tinct faults within the substrate

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

direct observations of evolving subglacial drainage beneath the greenland ice sheet simultaneous observations of moulins and boreholes in western greenland show that water delivery to the base of the ice sheet via moulins affects short term ice velocity fluctuations but not late season ice velocity decelerations increased meltwater delivery to the base of the greenland ice sheet will increase the ice sheet velocity accelerating its inevitable rush towards the ocean and subsequent sea level rise or will it debate on this topic is at the forefront of cryospheric research but has been hampered by the lack of simultaneous observations of hydraulic head in moulins vertical shafts that deliver water to the base of the ice sheet and boreholes which monitor basal water pressure lauren andrews and colleagues now provide these observations from a small region in western greenland and reveal that water delivery by moulins into channelized basal flow is indeed linked to short term fluctuations in ice velocity late season decelerations in ice velocity however seem to be controlled by changes in unchannelized flow rather than any shifts in the moulin system seasonal acceleration of the greenland ice sheet is influenced by the dynamic response of the subglacial hydrologic system to variability in meltwater delivery to the bed1 2 via crevasses and moulins vertical conduits connecting supraglacial water to the bed of the ice sheet as the melt season progresses the subglacial hydrologic system drains supraglacial meltwater more efficiently1 2 3 4 decreasing basal water pressure4 and moderating the ice velocity response to surface melting1 2 however limited direct observations of subglacial water pressure4 5 6 7 mean that the spatiotemporal evolution of the subglacial hydrologic system remains poorly understood here we show that ice velocity is well correlated with moulin hydraulic head but is out of phase with that of nearby 0 3 2 kilometres away boreholes indicating that moulins connect to an efficient channelized component of the subglacial hydrologic system which exerts the primary control on diurnal and multi day changes in ice velocity our simultaneous measurements of moulin and borehole hydraulic head and ice velocity in the paakitsoq region of western greenland show that decreasing trends in ice velocity during the latter part of the melt season cannot be explained by changes in the ability of moulin connected channels to convey supraglacial melt instead these observations suggest that decreasing late season ice velocity may be caused by changes in connectivity in unchannelized regions of the subglacial hydrologic system understanding this spatiotemporal variability in subglacial pressures is increasingly important because melt season dynamics affect ice velocity beyond the conclusion of the melt season8 9 10

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

sediment deformation beneath glaciers and its coupling to the subglacial hydraulic system abstract the extent and style of shear deformation in sediments beneath modern glaciers and the geological evidence for such deformation in deposited sediments are reviewed new evidence is presented from beneath a modern glacier of the spatial and temporal patterns of water pressure fluctuation and of time dependent patterns of deformation in sediments it is concluded that in most experimental sites beneath soft bedded modern glaciers deformation is a significant or major contributor to glacier movement and the resultant discharge of till is large enough to make sediment deformation a major till forming process particular modes of deformation facilitate incorporation of underlying material into the till whilst the capacity of a deforming till to absorb strain can protect the underlying strata from deformation leading to the commonly found relationship where till overlies other strata with a sharp planar interface it is argued that the almost ubiquitous occurrence of drumlins on the beds of former ice sheets is a reflection of the widespread occurrence of sediment deformation beneath them with important implications for the coupling of ice sheet flow and bed properties it is argued that the mechanical behaviour of the subglacial system is not simply determined by till properties but largely controlled by the subglacial water pressure regime determined by the nature of subglacial drainage results of field experiments show how the nature of the basal hydraulic system can play a vital role in controlling the coupling between the glacier and till deformation processes they show that rapid glacier advances can produce undrained loading of sediments that effective pressure may increase either upwards or downwards in a till according to the direction of drainage and that interstitial water pressures in subglacial sediments can show large and rapid variations producing strong variations in the rate and distribution of strain and in the partitioning of basal movement between sliding and deformation

drainage through subglacial water sheets 1 subglacial drainage plays an important role in controlling coupling between glacial ice and underlying bed here we study the flow of water in thin macroporous sheets between ice and bed previous work shows that small perturbations in depth of a nearly parallel sided water film grow unstably because these areas have enhanced viscous dissipation that leads to enhanced melting of an ice roof we argue that in the presence of bed protrusions bridging a water sheet downward motion of the ice roof can stabilize this sheet stability results when the rate of roof closure increases faster with water depth than the rate of viscous dissipation we therefore modify existing theory to include protrusions that partially support the overlying glacier differences in the pressure on protrusions relative to water pressure drive roof closure the mechanisms of both regelation and creep normal to the bed close the overlying ice roof and decrease the ice bed gap in order to account for multiple protrusion sizes along the bed for instance resulting from an assortment of various sized sediment grains we incorporate a method of partitioning overburden pressure among different protrusion size classes and the water sheet partitioning is dependent on the amount of ice protrusion contact and therefore water depth this method allows prediction of roof closure rates we then investigate stable steady sheet configurations for reasonable parameter choices and find that these steady states can occur for modest water depths at very low effective pressures as is appropriate for ice streams moreover we find that multiple steady sheet thicknesses exist raising the possibility of switches between low and high hydraulic conductivity regimes for the subglacial water system

evolution of drainage system morphology at a land terminating greenlandic outlet glacier 1 the influence of meltwater on the dynamics and geomorphic impact of the greenland ice sheet is strongly controlled by the morphology of the ice sheet s drainage system however this system and its evolution through the melt season remain poorly understood here we present the results of an intensive programme of dye tracing experiments undertaken along the lower 14 km of a land terminating greenlandic outlet glacier over a period of four months during the 2010 melt season these data are interpreted in conjunction with observations of proglacial discharge englacial water storage surface melt rates and ice velocity to produce a detailed picture of the changing hydrology of the glacier following the onset of melt in the spring inputs to the drainage system regularly exceed outputs causing the englacial water level to rise to the ice sheet surface during this time there is a rapid transition from distributed to channelized drainage in those parts of the drainage system closed by ice deformation over winter as the melt season progresses channel efficiency increases and englacial storage and ice velocity decrease high velocity events continue to be observed following the channelization of the drainage system however indicating that hydrological forcing of ice velocity occurs despite the existence of channels during periods when meltwater inputs exceed the capacity of the subglacial drainage system

tv video observations of englacial voids in storglaciaren sweden tv video observations of four boreholes in storglaciaren sweden revealed that 1 3 of the observed ice column was composed of englacial voids the form of the voids is presented by photographs from the video it is suggested that they are openings into englacial channels and cavities which were intersected during drilling the observations further showed that about 11 of the ice column consisted of air bubble poor blue ice inclusions the observations show a relation between the blue ice inclusions and the voids which indicates that the origin and development of these features are coupled to each other it is suggested that crevasses in the accumulation area are an important factor in this process

englacial water distribution in a temperate glacier from surface and borehole radar velocity analysis we have obtained common offset common midpoint cmp and borehole vertical vrp ground penetrating radar profiles close to the margin of falljokull a small steep temperate valley glacier situated in southeast iceland velocity analysis of cmp and vrp surveys provided a four layered velocity model this model was verified by comparison between the depths of englacial reflectors and water channels seen in borehole video and from the depths of boreholes drilled to the bed in the absence of sediment within the glacier ice radar velocity is inversely proportional to water content using mixture models developed by paren and looyenga the variation of water content with depth was determined from the radar velocity profile at the glacier surface the calculated water content is 0 23 0 34 velocity 0 166 m ns 1 which rises sharply to 3 0 4 1 velocity 0 149 m ns 1 at 28 m depth interpreted to be the level of the piezometric surface below the piezometric surface the water content drops slowly to 2 4 3 3 velocity 0 152 m ns 1 until 102 m depth where it falls to 0 09 0 14 velocity 0 167 m ns 1 the water content of the ice then remains low to the glacier bed at about 112 m these results suggest storage of a substantial volume of water within the glacier ice which has significant implications for glacier hydrology ice rheology and interpretations of both radar and seismic surveys

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

sub annual moraine formation at an active temperate icelandic glacier this paper presents detailed geomorphological and sedimentological investigations of small recessional moraines at fjallsjokull an active temperate outlet of oraefajokull southeast iceland the moraines are characterised by striking sawtooth or hairpin planforms which are locally superimposed giving rise to a complex spatial pattern we recognise two distinct populations of moraines namely a group of relatively prominent moraine ridges mean height 1 2 m and a group of comparatively low relief moraines mean height 0 4 m these two groups often occur in sets systems comprising one pronounced outer ridge and several inset smaller moraines using a representative subsample of the moraines we establish that they form by either i submarginal deformation and squeezing of subglacial till or ii pushing of extruded tills locally proglacial glaciofluvial sediments are also incorporated within the moraines during pushing for the first time to our knowledge we demonstrate categorically that these moraines formed sub annually using repeat uncrewed aerial vehicle uav imagery we present a conceptual model for sub annual moraine formation at fjallsjokull that proposes the sawtooth moraine sequence comprises i sets of small squeeze moraines formed during melt driven squeeze events and ii larger push moraines formed during winter re advances we suggest the development of this process form regime is linked to a combination of elevated temperatures high surface meltwater fluxes to the bed and emerging basal topography a depositional overdeepening these factors result in highly saturated subglacial sediments and high porewater pressures which induces submarginal deformation and ice marginal squeezing during the melt season strong glacier recession during the summer driven by elevated temperatures allows several squeeze moraines to be emplaced this process form regime may be characteristic of active temperate glaciers receding into overdeepenings during phases of elevated temperatures especially where their englacial drainage systems allow efficient transfer of surface meltwater to the glacier bed near the snout margin

plastic bed beneath hofsjokull ice cap central iceland and the sensitivity of ice flow to surface meltwater flux author s minchew b simons m bjornsson h palsson f morlighem m seroussi h larour e hensley s abstract the author s 2016 the mechanical properties of glacier beds play a fundamental role in regulating the sensitivity of glaciers to environmental forcing across a wide range of timescales glaciers are commonly underlain by deformable till whose mechanical properties and influence on ice flow are not well understood but are critical for reliable projections of future glacier states using synoptic scale observations of glacier motion in different seasons to constrain numerical ice flow models we study the mechanics of the bed beneath hofsjokull a land terminating ice cap in central iceland our results indicate that the bed deforms plastically and weakens following incipient summertime surface melt combining the inferred basal shear traction fields with a coulomb plastic bed model we estimate the spatially distributed effective basal water pressure and show that changes in basal water pressure and glacier accelerations are non local and non linear these results motivate an idealized physical model relating mean basal water pressure and basal slip rate wherein the sensitivity of glacier flow to changes in basal water pressure is inversely related to the ice surface slope

deformation till in the great lakes region implications for rapid flow along the south central margin of the laurentide ice sheet structural and lithologic data indicate that while deposited under actively moving ice considerable portions of three muddy calcareous subglacial tills in the great lakes region probably experienced some component of ductile deformation viscous till flow and ductile shear are invoked to explain a combination of features such as recumbent isoclinal folds unlithified sediment clasts mixed ostracode shells reversed stone lee ends girdle and transverse fabrics irregular stone pavements fine striae following stone curves and inconsistent stone striae and a axes deforming fine textured subglacial till is considered as a subhorizontal shear zone rheologically layered with associated structures in descending order ductile e g isoclinal folds brittle ductile e g fissility and brittle e g till wedges rheology would be controlled mainly by till pore water content matrix texture and stone content spatial and temporal superposition of rheologies and subglacial processes probably occur

contribution of antarctica to past and future sea level rise polar temperatures over the last several million years have at times been slightly warmer than today yet global mean sea level has been 6 9 metres higher as recently as the last interglacial 130 000 to 115 000 years ago and possibly higher during the pliocene epoch about three million years ago in both cases the antarctic ice sheet has been implicated as the primary contributor hinting at its future vulnerability here we use a model coupling ice sheet and climate dynamics including previously underappreciated processes linking atmospheric warming with hydrofracturing of buttressing ice shelves and structural collapse of marine terminating ice cliffs that is calibrated against pliocene and last interglacial sea level estimates and applied to future greenhouse gas emission scenarios antarctica has the potential to contribute more than a metre of sea level rise by 2100 and more than 15 metres by 2500 if emissions continue unabated in this case atmospheric warming will soon become the dominant driver of ice loss but prolonged ocean warming will delay its recovery for thousands of years