isotopic composition of old ground water from lake agassiz implications for late pleistocene climate a uniform oxygen isotope value of 25 per mil was obtained from old ground water at depths of 20 to 30 meters in a thick deposit of clay in the southern part of the glacial lake agassiz basin the lake occupied parts of north dakota and southern manitoba at the end of the last glacial maximum and received water from the ice margin and the interior plains region of canada ground water from thick late pleistocene age clay deposits elsewhere a till in southern saskatchewan and a glaciolacustrine deposit in northern ontario show the same value at similar depths these sites are at about 50 n latitude span a distance of 2000 kilometers and like the lake agassiz sites have a ground water velocity of less than a few millimeters per year the value of 25 per mil is characteristic of meltwater impounded in the southern basin of lake agassiz this value corresponds to an estimated air temperature of 16 c compared with the modern temperature of 0 c for this area

overdeepened quaternary valleys in the eastern danish north sea morphology and origin abstract a system of 100 350 m deep overdeepened and buried valleys has been mapped in the eastern danish north sea individual valleys can be traced for several tens of kilometres and valleys generally begin and terminate abruptly a correlation to buried valleys onshore southwest denmark is possible the valleys post date glaciotectonic structures and are interpreted to be elsterian and possibly saalian in age the origin of valleys in the eastern danish north sea is explained by repeated cycles of sub glacial down cutting of meltwater channels and channel closure due to ice creep eventually producing deeply incised valleys glacial erosion may have been significant in cases where valleys are broad and shallow the origin of overdeepened quaternary valleys in general can be attributed to a combination of three end member processes i steady state drainage of meltwater ii catastrophic outbursts of meltwater and iii glacial erosion the main requirement for sub glacial valley formation is the presence of a melting ice sheet overlying a poorly consolidated substrate permeability variations of the substrate may produce subregional variations in the pattern of valley incision while pre glacial rivers faults or salt structures are of local importance only

a morphometric analysis of tunnel valleys in the eastern north sea based on 3d seismic data a 1250 km2 3d seismic volume is used to provide a detailed spatial and geometrical analysis of fifteen pleistocene tunnel valleys in the danish north sea all the valleys are buried they are up to 39 km long 3 4 km wide and up to 350 m deep the valleys are part of a vast tunnel valley province covering an area of some 0 5 million km2 of the formerly glaciated lowland areas of north west europe the valleys consist of non branching non anastomosing troughs they exhibit strongly undulating bottom profiles with numerous sub basins and thresholds and are characterised by adverse end slopes cross cutting relationships and theoretical considerations suggest the occurrence of seven major episodes of valley incision attributed to ice marginal oscillations within a few glacials calculations considering the valley end gradients and theoretical ice surface profiles suggest that the valleys were formed by pressurised subglacial meltwater erosion given a range of theoretical ice surface profiles the adverse end slopes are well beyond the supercooling threshold which suggests that the water was not in thermal equilibrium with the basal ice and that flow was concentrated in substantial conduits with sufficient mass and flux to maintain water temperature well above the freezing point copyright 2007 john wiley sons ltd

new insights into the subglacial and periglacial hydrology of vatnajokull iceland from a distributed physical model we apply a time dependent distributed glaciohydraulic model tovatna jo kull ice cap iceland aiming to determine the large scale subglacial drainage structure theimportance of basallyderivedmeltwater theinfluence ofapermeable glacierbedand vatnajo kull s discharge contribution to major rivers in iceland the model comprisestwo coupled layersthatrepresentthesubglacialhorizonperchedona subsurfaceaquifer inthe western sector and bedrock in the eastern sector to initialize and drive the simulations we use digital elevation models of the ice surface and bed the1999 2000 measured mass balance and an estimate of subglacial geothermal heat fluxes the modelled subglacial flow field differs substantially from that derived by hydraulic potential calculations and the corresponding distribution of basal effective pressure shows a strong correlation between low effective pressure and surge prone areas in northeastern and southern sectors of vatnajo kull simulations suggest that geothermally derived basal melt may account for upto 5 of the annualglacial discharge and buried aquifers may evacuate up to 30 ofsubglacialwater time dependenttestsyieldestimatesoftheglacialdischargecomponent in various outlet rivers and suggest a possible seasonal migration of subglacial hydraulic divides this study of present dayvatnajo kull hydrology formsthe starting point for inves tigationsof its future evolution

response of sediment to ice sheet loading in northwestern germany effective stresses and glacier bed stability laboratory tests on sediment over ridden by the last ice sheet in northwestern germany reveal very low ice induced pre consolidation and high palaeo pore water pressures sediment consolidation at the base of the glacier was largely controlled by hydraulic properties of the substratum generally low permeabilities of the bed caused sustained high pore water pressure in over ridden sediments close to the flotation point this implies a serious possibility of hydraulic lifting of the ice sheet it is believed that the reduced basal coupling limited the transformation of glacier shear stress on to the bed sediments which is indicated by a lack of sedimentological evidence for widespread pervasive bed deformation ice motion was probably focused at the glacier sole by some combination of sliding and ploughing however isolated spots with deformation occur so that the subglacial system in the study area can be characterized as a stable deforming mosaic

glaciohydraulic supercooling in iceland we present evidence of glaciohydraulic supercooling under jokulhlaup and ablation dominated conditions from two temperate icelandic glaciers observations show that freezing of sediment laden meltwater leads to intraglacial debris entrainment during normal and extreme hydrologic regimes intraglacial frazil ice propagation under normal ablation dominated conditions can trap copious volumes of sediment which forms anomalously thick sections of debris rich ice glaciohydraulic supercooling plays an important role in intraglacial debris entrainment and should be given more attention in models of basal ice development extreme jokulhlaup conditions can result in significant intraglacial sediment accretion by supercooling which may explain the concentration of englacial sediments deposited in heinrich layers in the north atlantic during the last glaciation

last glacial maximum in poland abstract the last glacial maximum lgm in poland is represented by the leszno phase and occurred after 21 ka radiocarbon years in turn the deglacial poznan phase is estimated at 18 4 ka the pomeranian phase at 15 2 ka the gardno phase at about 14 0 13 8 ka the slupsk bank phase at 13 5 13 2 ka and the southern middle bank phase at 12 7 12 5 ka bp the ice sheet limit at lgm was not synchronous everywhere in poland but occurred as several major and minor ice lobes that reflected a stream like structure of the ice body that radiated southwards from the baltic basin meltwater runoff during the lgm created a complex system of sandur trains and ice marginal spillways with numerous intervening proglacial lakes

soils in the bipartite sediments within the moscow glacial limits of the russian plain sedimentary environment pedogenesis paleolandscape implication abstract the basal tills of the late moscow mis 6 cryochrone form an important component of landscapes in northern europe including the center of the russian plain the till is often covered only with a thin cover layer 30 50 cm as an average veneers of sands sandy loams or silty loams so that surface soils retisols are formed in the bipartite sediments the study of such soils allows identifying a set of pre depositional syn depositional and post depositional pedogenic and cryogenic features an assemblage of macro meso and micro morphological features together with analytical data confirmed that soils had been formed within several climatic cycles starting from the late moscow time till now including the last thermochrone when the well developed argic horizon had been formed modern pedogenesis forms embedded profiles within the cover layer depending on the bioclimatic parameters with humic protospodic or cambic horizons the clear record of the final stages of sedimentation and ancient pedogenesis within profiles of soils in bipartite sediments may help to derive paleoclimatic interpretations from the last interglacial glacial cycle till present correlation of these records with other archives in glacial and periglacial areas opens attractive research perspectives

experimental modeling of pressurized subglacial water flow implications for tunnel valley formation tunnel valleys are elongated hollows commonly found in formerly glaciated areas and interpreted as resulting from subglacial meltwater erosion beneath ice sheets over the past two decades the number of studies of terrestrial tunnel valleys has continuously increased and their existence has been hypothesized also on mars but their formation mechanisms remain poorly understood we introduce here an innovative experimental approach to examine erosion by circulation of pressurized meltwater within the substratum and at the silicon substratum interface we used a permeable substratum sand partially covered by a viscous impermeable and transparent lid silicon putty below which we applied a central injection of pure water low water pressures led to groundwater circulation in the substratum only while water pressures exceeding the sum of the glaciostatic and lithostatic pressures led to additional water circulation and formation of drainage landforms at the cap substratum interface the formation of these drainage landforms was monitored through time and their shapes were analyzed from digital elevation model obtained by stereo photogrammetry the experimental landforms include valleys that are similar to natural tunnel valleys in their spatial organization and in a number of diagnostic morphological criteria such as undulating longitudinal profiles and tunnel shapes these results are consistent with the hypothesis that overpressurized subglacial water circulation controls the formation of tunnel valleys

theoretical contemporary observational and palaeo perspectives on ice sheet hydrology processes and products publisher elsevier articletitle theoretical contemporary observational and palaeo perspectives on ice sheet hydrology processes and products journaltitle earth science reviews articlelink http dx doi org 10 1016 j earscirev 2016 01 010 content type article copyright copyright 2016 elsevier b v all rights reserved

seismic investigations of buried tunnel valleys on and offshore denmark tunnel valleys on and offshore denmark have been investigated based on a database of 1000 km two dimensional 2d onshore seismic data 5600 km 2d offshore seismic data and 1200 km2 three dimensional 3d offshore seismic data from the 2d data we identified 216 onshore and 674 offshore seismic tunnel valley intersections and 55 individual valleys were identified from three 3d surveys the majority of the valleys have depths ranging from 50 to 200 m and widths between 500 and 1500 m up to seven generations of tunnel valleys were identified indicating repeated erosion and deposition within the study area the valleys were most likely formed by subglacial meltwater erosion during the last three glaciations statistical analyses conducted on the data show that there are no significant differences between the onshore and offshore valleys with respect to their depth and shape they share morphological and structural characteristics the onshore seismic data have been analysed in conjunction with lithological information from boreholes the analyses show that tunnel valley bottoms terminate equally commonly in substrates dominated by clay and sand and that the valley shapes are similar for the two substrates the geological society of london 2012

subglacial groundwater flow during the last glaciation in northwestern germany abstract reconstruction of groundwater flow in overpressured soft sediments overridden by the last weichselian ice sheet in northwestern germany about 18 000 ka b p based on numerical modelling reveals a complete reorganisation of groundwater dynamics as compared to the present system groundwater flow controlled by potentiometric surface high up in the ice sheet and by a steep hydraulic gradient at the glacier periphery was here up to 30 times faster than at present and a vertical flow component penetrated the entire thickness of quaternary sediments reaching some 200 m in places

barchan dunes why they cannot be treated as solitons or solitary waves schwammle and herrmann nature 2003 vol 426 p 619 have suggested that two sub aerial barchan sand dunes could pass through one another while still preserving their shape in a manner similar to solitons or solitary waves a wide range of published field and wind tunnel evidence suggests that this assertion should not go unchallenged copyright 2005 john wiley sons ltd

howe lake a hydrodynamic blowout structure howe lake formerly called goudie lake is an unusual feature of southeast saskatchewan almost perfectly circular diameter 295 m it is much deeper 26 m than almost any other prairie lake i

subglacial hydrology in north western germany during the last glaciation groundwater flow tunnel valleys and hydrological cycles abstract numerical modelling of groundwater dynamics in an overpressured system of subglacial aquifers and aquitards under the marginal portion of the scandinavian ice sheet in northwestern germany has been coupled with calculations of basal meltwater production rates and with field evidence of meltwater erosional features largely fine grained subglacial sediments with relatively low hydraulic conductivities had a capacity to drain only about 25 of all basal meltwater produced in the relevant subglacial catchment area the rest of the meltwater was evacuated through tunnel valleys in spontaneous outburst events subglacial drainage cycles are proposed in which each cycle begins with meltwater drainage through the substratum groundwater flow followed by water ponding at the ice bed interface and ends in catastrophic meltwater releases through tunnel valleys

evidence for dilution of deep confined ground water by vertical recharge of isotopically heavy pleistocene water new analyses of the isotopic composition of water sup 14 c dating of dissolved inorganic carbon and order of magnitude darcy calculations suggest that a dilute body of water trending north south in the cambrian ordovician aquifer of iowa was emplaced as vertical recharge of pleistocene age water from the base of the des moines lobe of late wisconsin time the recharge occurred through more than 300 m of overlaying silurian to mississippian age rocks the delta sup 18 o values range from minus 10 per thousand to minus 9 per thousand for the dilute water body and are consistent with a mixture of des moines lobe meltwater and precipitation found today in the north central us these results suggest that 1 the climate at the end of the last glaciation was mild and 2 a ground water stable isotope signature similar to that of modern precipitation in an aquifers recharge area is not a priori evidence for relatively recent recharge

formation of subglacial till under transient bed conditions deposition deformation and basal decoupling under a weichselian ice sheet lobe central poland a multi proxy approach involving a study of sediment architecture grain size grain roundness and crushing index petrographic and clay mineral composition till fabric and till micromorphology was applied to infer processes of till formation and deformation under a weichselian ice sheet at kurzetnik poland the succession consists of three superposed till units overlying outwash sediments deformed at the top the textural characteristics of tills vary little throughout the till thickness whereas structural appearance is diversified including massive and bedded regions indicators of intergranular bed deformation include overturned attenuated folds boudinage structures a sediment mixing zone grain crushing microstructural lineations grain stacking and high fabric strength lodgement proxies are grooved intra till surfaces ploughing marks and consistently striated clast surfaces basal decoupling by pressurized meltwater is indicated by undisturbed sand stringers sand filled meltwater scours under pebbles and partly armoured till pellets it is suggested that the till experienced multiple transitions between lodgement deformation and basal decoupling cumulative strain was high but the depth of time transgressive deformation much lower centimetre range than the entire till thickness ca 2 m at any point in time consistent with the deforming bed mosaic model throughout most of ice overriding porewater pressure was high in the vicinity of glacier floatation pressure indicating that the substratum consisting of 11 m thick sand was unable to drain subglacial meltwater sufficiently

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

a numerical investigation of ice lobe permafrost interaction around the southern laurentide ice sheet permafrost existed around and under marginal parts of the southern laurentide ice sheet during the last glacial maximum the presence of permafrost was important in determining the extent form and dynamics of ice lobes and the landforms they produced because of influences on resistance to basal motion and subglacial hydrology we develop a two dimensional time dependent model of permafrost and glacier ice dynamics along a flowline to examine i the extent to which permafrost survives under an advancing ice lobe and how it influences landform development and hydrology and ii the influence of permafrost on ice motion and surface profile the model is applied to the green bay lobe which terminated near madison wisconsin during the last glacial maximum simulations of ice advance over permafrost indicate that the bed upstream of the ice sheet margin was frozen for 60 200 km at the glacial maximum permafrost remained for centuries to a few thousand years under advancing ice and penetrated sufficiently deep tens of meters into the underlying aquifer that drainage of basal meltwater became inefficient likely resulting in water storage beneath the glacier our results highlight the influence of permafrost on subglacial conditions even though uncertainties in boundary conditions such as climate exist

subglacial hydrology for an ice sheet resting on a deformable aquifer glissements et deformation de la calotte de glace en relation avec le materiau de l aquifere et la densite des chenaux de drainage

investigation of water pressure transients beneath temperate glaciers using numerical groundwater flow experiments recent work has identified groundwater flow through basal till aquifers as a key control on melt season pressure transients beneath alpine glaciers with potential implications for climate change studies glacial geomorphology tracer test interpretation and the sediment load and chemistry of glacially derived waters in this study we investigate heuristically such subglacial darcian flow processes using standard groundwater modelling techniques our primary result is that a one dimensional transient confined flow model with recharge implemented numerically using time varying specified head and no flow boundaries reproduces overall observed subglacial hydraulic behaviour very well and permits effective visualisation of aquifer responses under different conditions spatial variability in hydrogeological parameters is shown to have significant effects but may be difficult to incorporate reliably into site specific models and to identify unambiguously in borehole pressure data time variance in areal recharge if present is apparently not observably expressed in the system but time variance in transmissivity may be significant for some glaciers copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

pleistocene recharge to midcontinent basins effects on salinity structure and microbial gas generation the hydrogeochemistry of saline meteoric water interface zones in sedimentary basins is important in constraining the fluid migration history chemical evolution of basinal brines and physical stability of saline formation waters during episodes of freshwater recharge this is especially germane for interior cratonic basins such as the michigan and illinois basins although there are large differences in formation water salinity and hydrostratigraphy in these basins both are relatively quiescent tectonically and have experienced repeated cycles of glaciation during the pleistocene exploration for unconventional microbial gas deposits which began in the upper devonian age antrim shale at the northern margin of the michigan basin has recently extended into the age equivalent new albany shale of the neighboring illinois basin providing access to heretofore unavailable fluid samples these reveal an extensive regional recharge system that has profoundly changed the salinity structure and induced significant biogeochemical modification of formation water elemental and isotope geochemistry new formation water and gas samples were obtained from devonian mississippian strata in the illinois basin these included exploration wells in the new albany shale an organic rich black shale of upper devonian age and formation waters from over and underlying regional aquifer systems siluro devonian and mississippian age the hydrostratigraphic relations of major aquifers and aquitards along the eastern margin of the illinois basin critically influenced fluid migration into the new albany shale the new albany shale formation water chemistry indicates significant invasion of meteoric water with d values as low as 46 05 into the shale the carbon stable isotope system 13c values as high as 29 4 coupled with 18o d and alkalinity of formation waters alkalinity 24 08 meq kg identifies the presence of microbial gas associated with meteoric recharge regional geochemical patterns identify the underlying siluro devonian carbonate aquifer system as the major conduit for freshwater recharge into the fractured new albany shale reservoirs recharge from overlying mississippian carbonates is only significant in the southernmost portion of the basin margin where carbonates directly overlie the new albany shale recharge of dilute waters cl 1000 mm into the siluro devonian section has suppressed formation water salinity to depths as great as 1 km across the entire eastern illinois basin margin taken together with salinity and stable isotope patterns in age equivalent michigan basin formation waters they suggest a regional impact of recharge of 18o and d depleted fluids related to pleistocene glaciation devonian black shales at both basin margins have been affected by recharge and produced significant volumes of microbial methane this recharge is also manifested in different salinity gradients in the two basins because of their large differences in original formation water salinity given the relatively quiet tectonic history and subdued current topography in the midcontinent region it is likely that repeated cycles of glacial meltwater invasion across this region have induced a strong disequilibrium pattern in fluid salinity and produced a unique class of unconventional shale hosted gas deposits

groundwater flow beneath late weichselian glacier ice in nordfjord norway basal water pressure and water flow patterns are significant factors in controlling the behavior of an ice sheet because they influence ice sheet thickness stability and extent water produced by basal melting may infiltrate the subsurface or occur as sheet or channelized flow at the ice bed interface we examine subglacial groundwater conditions along a flowline of the scandinavian ice sheet through nordfjord in the western fjords region of southern norway using a steady state two dimensional groundwater flow model meltwater input to the groundwater model is calculated by a two dimensional time dependent thermomechanically coupled ice flow model oriented along the same flowline model results show that the subglacial sediments could not have transmitted all the meltwater out of the fjord during times of ice advance and when the ice sheet was at its maximum position at the edge of the continental shelf in order for pore water pressures to remain below the overburden pressure of the overlying ice other paths of subglacial drainage are necessary to remove excess water during times of retreat the subglacial aquifer is incapable of transmitting all the meltwater that was probably generated pulses of meltwater reaching the bed could explain non climatically driven margin readvances during the overall retreat phase

subglacial conditions under the last ice sheet in northwest germany ice bed separation and enhanced basal sliding abstract theoretical reconstruction of ice thickness during the weichselian glaciation in a portion of northwest germany yields maximum thicknesses of about 280 m some 50 km into the ice sheet from the margin this corresponds to averaged driving stress at the glacier bed in the order of 17 kpa the increase in ice thickness away from the margin was non uniform caused by undulations in pre existing topography steady state subglacial water pressure heads were high up in the ice sheet reaching the flotation point in places hydraulic lifting of the ice sheet probably occurred causing non deforming bed conditions where transformation of basal shear stresses to soft subglacial sediments was prevented by a water film thin stringers of undeformed sorted sediments occurring in tills are attributed to basal meltwater washing during phases of ice bed separation the basal water film was over 5 mm thick using a quantitative approach coupled with field data we demonstrate that neither internal ice deformation nor bed deformation contributed much to the ice motion instead the rapid movement of the weichselian ice sheet was caused by basal sliding with ploughing the ice sheet was probably characterized by an unstable behaviour

buried and open tunnel valleys in denmark erosion beneath multiple ice sheets abstract tunnel valleys are large elongate and irregular depressions cut beneath the margin of former ice sheets they are generally believed to play a substantial role for the entire hydraulic system beneath ice sheets and thus also for ice sheet behaviour their origin however remains poorly understood examination of newly collected danish hydrogeophysical and lithological data has revealed numerous systems of buried valleys 50 350 m deep and 0 5 4 km wide these valleys are similar to the open tunnel valleys found in the present day landscape infills comprise a variety of sediments often with subglacial clay till and meltwater deposits the incised substratum consists of limestone heavy paleogene clay sand and silt the tunnel valleys have preferred orientations and can be divided into several generations each ascribed individual ice advances or ice sheets occurring during multiple glaciations the processes forming the valleys appear to prefer pre existing open and buried valleys for the renewed erosion thus old subglacial erosion pathways have been re used several times and some of the present tunnel valleys may have been established in the middle or early quaternary or even earlier this valley re use effect causes apparently anastomosed valley systems to emerge in the data images the valleys were mainly eroded by meltwater supposed to have drained from subglacially stored reservoirs probably behind a frozen margin the water was most likely released in repeated jokulhlaups and flowed in relatively small channels on the floors of the tunnel valleys which gradually became ice filled with the lowering of the bed selective linear glacial erosion is also believed to have contributed to the erosion this however was most pronounced for the widest valleys and is supposed to have played a secondary role

numerical reconstruction of a soft bedded laurentide ice sheet during the last glacial maximum we used a numerical ice sheet model to reconstruct the north american laurentide ice sheet during the last glacial maximum our model simulates ice sheet conditions that can be specified experimentally as either a rigid substrate hard bed or a wet deformable till soft bed basal sliding is excluded we use geologic records of former basal ice sheet processes to prescribe the distribution of hard and soft beds our reconstruction of the laurentide ice sheet is significantly lower in ice surface height and contains less ice volume than the climap maximum reconstruction in contrast our reconstruction agrees well with the ice 4g reconstruction both in height and volume because the ice 4g reconstruction is based on the inversion of relative sea level data whereas our reconstruction is based on glacial geology and ice mechanics this agreement suggests that soft beds provide a glaciological mechanism to explain the shape and volume of the laurentide ice sheet that is most consistent with observations of relative sea level change and other geodynamic considerations

glaciohydraulic supercooling a freeze on mechanism to create stratified debris rich basal ice i field evidence debris laden ice accretes to the base of matanuska glacier alaska u s a from water that supercools while flowing in a distributed drainage system up the adverse slope of an overdeepening frazil ice grows in the water column and forms aggregates while other ice grows on the glacier sole or on substrate materials sediment is trapped by this growing ice forming stratified debris laden basal ice growth rates of 0 1 m a 1 of debris rich basal ice are possible the large sediment fluxes that this mechanism allows may have implications for interpretation of the widespread deposits from ice that flowed through other overdeepenings including heinrich events and the till sheets south of the laurentian great lakes

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

subglacial drainage by groundwater channel coupling and the origin of esker systems part ii theory and simulation of a modern system abstract the observations from breidamerkurjokull reported in part i are used as a basis for a theory of coupled channel groundwater flow that suggests that the large scale geometry of the hydraulic system self organises as a consequence of coupling between groundwater and channel flow the pattern of channel esker distribution is largely determined by winter conditions and the sedimentary characteristics of eskers are largely determined by summer conditions when large discharges of surface meltwater penetrate to the bed in the terminal zone a simulation model is developed to explore evolution of the channel groundwater system during a period of glacier growth it suggests that as the glacier grows channel esker frequencies will increase as will the proportion of the melt flux discharged by channel flow that groundwater impacts can extend to depth that low water pressure bulbs will extend downwards beneath channels that groundwater upwelling towards channels are strong enough to create widespread conditions for liquefaction and that pressure shocks can occur as the channel system reorganises itself

reversal of the regional scale flow system of the williston basin in response to pleistocene glaciation low 18o values of formation waters collapse structures related to salt dissolution hydrodynamic blowout structures and biodegradation of oils all suggest a significant influx of fresh water into the williston basin along the outcrop belt in southern and central manitoba during pleistocene glaciation the thickness of the continental ice sheet over manitoba would have provided sufficient potentiometric drive to reverse the regional scale flow system of the williston basin the dynamic nature of the flow system suggests that modern day pressure distributions may not be good proxies for ancient petroleum migration pathways as is commonly assumed

a multicomponent coupled model of glacier hydrology 2 application to trapridge glacier yukon canada 1 a new glaciohydraulic model is tailored to trapridge glacier yukon canada where long term measurements of subglacial water pressure provide parameter constraints and a platform for model evaluation using digital elevation models and meteorological data as input we investigate hydrology on diurnal and seasonal timescales quantitative comparisons of simulated and observed pressure records allow us to select a reference model objectively from which we gain first insights into the gross spatial characteristics of the drainage system equilibrium simulations highlight target areas for water storage and potential sticky spots both of which have established relevance to glacier dynamics seasonal simulations capture the key signatures of spring and autumn transitions and corroborate our understanding of the processes involved successfully modeled features of the spring transition include increased hydraulic coupling between the surface and bed with time temporary augmentation of subglacial storage and rapid subglacial transitions from a hydraulically unconnected to connected state autumn transitions are characterized by deterioration of the basal drainage network drawdown of subglacial storage reservoirs and heightened sensitivity to precipitation and surface refreezing finally we draw attention to the important role of groundwater transport in cold glacial environments where permafrost can impede drainage from the ice margin

water throughflow and the physical effects of deformation on sedimentary glacier beds the sediment comprising a deformable bed beneath an ice mass is typically modeled as a homogeneous fluid without internal structure although clearly deformation must result from the spatial rearrangement of the particles that make up the sediment laboratory deformation experiments were used to simulate the effects of active deformation on subglacial sediments these experiments indicate that deformation results in the rearrangement of particles and changes in sediment structure scanning electron and optical microscopy of postdeformation sediments revealed both 1 particle alignment parallel or subparallel to the direction of principal strain and 2 dilation where active deformation had occurred both of these effects will alter the permeability and hence hydraulic conductivity of the sediment body increasing the rate of water flow through the bed parallel to deformation microscopic examination of these sediments allows estimation of postdeformation permeabilities these permeabilities may be anisotropic furthermore water throughflow by darcian processes enhanced by the effects of deformation may increase the proportion of basal water that can be evacuated by throughflow water will tend to be retained in the high permeability actively deforming layer and may destabilize this layer

modeling the subglacial hydrology of the late pleistocene lake michigan lobe laurentide ice sheet the fast ice flow characteristic of the low gradient lake michigan lobe of the southern laurentide ice sheet during the last glaciation likely resulted from some combination of subglacial sediment deformation and sliding at the ice bed interface both mechanisms require high basal water pressure relative to overlying ice pressure to evaluate the basal water pressures of the lake michigan lobe we used the groundwater model modflow to simulate groundwater flow along a 1040 km long flow line corresponding to the flow path taken by the ice lobe our simulations show that groundwater flow directions and velocities were substantially different than modern conditions simulations also indicate that subglacial aquifers were not capable of evacuating the estimated basal meltwater but that excess water draining through a basal drainage system such as one that may underlie ice stream b west antarctic ice sheet would prevent basal water pressure from exceeding the ice overburden pressure the buried mahomet bedrock valley system near the distal end of the lake michigan lobe could have drained enough subglacial water to substantially lower basal water pressure and thus affect the dynamics of the lobe by draining basal meltwater away from the lake michigan lobe the buried mahomet bedrock valley system may have attenuated the effect of permafrost on basal water pressure during the last glacial maximum groundwater flow patterns and velocities were altered or reversed relative to present conditions

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

subglacial recharge into the western canada sedimentary basin impact of pleistocene glaciation on basin hydrodynamics brine springs discharging from devonian carbonates of the western canada sedimentary basin have distinct water chemistry from brines in laterally equivalent units deeper in the basin stable isotope data suggest that the brine springs originated as pleistocene meltwater these waters are interpreted to originate as an influx of subglacial meltwater related to a reversal of the basin scale flow system caused by the overriding ice sheet esker distribution shows a notable relationship between shield and sedimentary rocks an integrated sedimentary basin ice sheet model supports the interpretation that high permeability carbonate units acted as preferential subglacial drains that in turn affected esker development the fluid flow history of the western canada sedimentary basin is characterized by back and forth movement through geological time in response to changing boundary conditions modern day flow systems may not then be indicative of historic movement of economic fluids through the basin

subglacial drainage by groundwater channel coupling and the origin of esker systems part 1 glaciological observations this work is presented in two parts part i presents observations on the coupling between subglacial channel flow and groundwater flow in determining subglacial hydraulic regime and creating eskers from an icelandic glacier that is suggested as an analogue for many parts of pleistocene ice sheets part ii develops a theory of perennial subglacial stream flow and the origin of esker systems and models the evolution of the subglacial stream system and associated groundwater flow in a glacier of the type described in part i it is suggested that groundwater flow may be the predominant mechanism whereby meltwater at the glacier bed finds its way to the major subglacial streams that discharge water to glacier margins

pleistocene hydrology of north america the role of ice sheets in reorganizing groundwater flow systems 1 while the geomorphic consequences of pleistocene megafloods have been known for some time it has been only in the past 2 decades that hydrogeologists and glaciologists alike have begun to appreciate the important impact that ice sheet aquifer interactions have had in controlling subsurface flow patterns recharge rates and the distribution of fresh water in confined aquifer systems across north america in this paper we document the numerous lines of geochemical isotopic and geomechanical evidence of ice sheet hydrogeology across north america we also review the mechanical thermal and hydrologic processes that control subsurface fluid migration beneath ice sheets finite element models of subsurface fluid flow permafrost formation and ice sheet loading are presented to investigate the coupled nature of transport processes during glaciation deglaciation these indicate that recharge rates as high as 10 times modern values occurred as the laurentide ice sheet overran the margins of sedimentary basins the effects of ice sheet loading and permafrost formation result in complex transient flow patterns within aquifers and confining units alike using geochemical and environmental isotopic data we estimate that the volume of glacial meltwater emplaced at the margins of sedimentary basins overrun by the laurentide ice sheet totals about 3 7 104 km3 which is about 0 2 of the volume of the laurentide ice sheet subglacial infiltration estimates based on continental scale hydrologic models are even higher 5 10 of meltwater generated these studies in sum call into question the widely held notion that groundwater flow patterns within confined aquifer systems are controlled primarily by the water table configuration during the pleistocene rather groundwater flow patterns were likely much more complex and transient in nature than has previously been thought because pleistocene recharge rates are believed to be highly variable these studies have profound implications for water resource managers charged with determining sustainable pumping rates from confined aquifers that host ice sheet meltwater

meltwater discharge through the subglacial bed and its land forming consequences from numerical experiments in the polish lowland during the last glaciation numerical experiments suggest that the last glaciation severely affected the upper lithosphere groundwater system in nw poland primarily its flow pattern velocities and fluxes we have simulated subglacial groundwater flow in two and three spatial dimensions using finite difference codes for steady state and transient conditions the results show how profoundly the ice sheet modifies groundwater pressure heads beneath and some distance beyond the ice margin all model runs show water discharge at the ice forefield driven by ice sheet thickness modulated down ice decreasing hydraulic heads in relation to non glacial times the transient 3d model shows significant changes in the groundwater flow directions in a regionally extensive aquifer ca 90 m below the ice bed interface and up to 40 km in front of the glacier comparison with empirical data suggests that depending on the model run only between 5 and 24 of the meltwater formed at the ice sole drained through the bed as groundwater this is consistent with field observations documenting abundant occurrence of tunnel valleys indicating that the remaining portion of basal meltwater was evacuated through a channelized subglacial drainage system groundwater flow simulation suggests that in areas of very low hydraulic conductivity and adverse subglacial slopes water ponding at the ice sole was likely in these areas the relief shows distinct palaeo ice lobes indicating fast ice flow possibly triggered by the undrained water at the ice bed interface owing to the abundance of low permeability strata in the bed the simulated groundwater flow depth is less than ca 200 m copyright 2009 john wiley sons ltd

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

volumetrically significant recharge of pleistocene glacial meltwaters into epicratonic basins constraints imposed by solute mass balances melting of kilometer thick continental ice sheets during pleistocene glaciation profoundly altered regional scale groundwater flow in the low lying stable interior of the north american craton in this paper we show that large volumes of glacial meltwater penetrated to great depths in underlying sedimentary basins through regionally extensive silurian devonian carbonate aquifers disrupting relatively stagnant saline fluids and creating a strong disequilibrium pattern in fluid salinity these dilute isotopically light meteoric waters migrated into overlying fractured organic rich upper devonian shales and significantly enhanced microbial methanogenesis generating a unique class of natural gas deposits along the shallow basin margins new data on formation water chemistry of upper devonian antrim shale gas wells along the northern and western margins of the michigan basin were integrated with previously published shale data and brines in subjacent silurian devonian carbonates this comprehensive database provides important constraints on fluid and solute transport and makes a compelling case for the reorganization of drinking water resources and salinity structures along the shallow basin margins by pleistocene glaciation na ca cl br relations and mass balance calculations were used to determine the relative volume of meteoric waters and sources of salinity in antrim shale fluids the majority of shale formation waters contain greater than 50 meteoric water with most containing over 80 meteoric water up to 300 m beneath the shale subcrop despite the presence of a strong salinity gradient meteoric water recharge dissolved variable amounts of halite from evaporite bearing silurian devonian carbonates along the flow path into the shale and displaced highly saline nacacl remnant marine brines the majority of antrim shale fluids owe greater than 60 of their salinity to halite dissolution while less than 40 of cl is from mixing with brines in silurian devonian strata oxygen and hydrogen isotope chemistry and carbon 14 age dating indicate these nacl brines were likely generated since the late pleistocene our conceptual model of fluid flow along the michigan basin margins and its role in generation of microbial gas were extrapolated to the larger glaciated midcontinent region where the silurian devonian carbonate subcrop is continuous along the illinois michigan and appalachian basin margins and is overlain by upper devonian black shales major differences in the hydrostratigraphy and fluid salinity of the epicratonic basins controlled the extent of meteoric water invasion and generation of microbial methane increased hydraulic gradients from melting of the continental ice sheets greatly enhanced recharge of dilute waters into deep silurian devonian aquifers and overlying fractured shales reversing regional scale groundwater flow and altering the major ion composition these fluid migration events occurred over relatively short time scales thousands of years compared to well documented basinal scale fluid migration events driven by tectonics and sediment compaction over millions of years understanding the hydrogeochemistry of the saline meteoric water mixing zones and the sources of salinity in sedimentary basins are both important for constraining fluid and solute transport chemical evolution of basinal fluids and physical stability of brines during meteoric water invasion

hydrochemistry of ice stream beds evaporitic or microbial effects recently new data have been acquired on the chemical composition of waters within the glacial till beneath the kamb ice stream kis formerly ice stream c and the bindschadler ice stream bis formerly ice stream d two of the arteries of ice loss from the antarctic ice sheet ais we compare this water chemistry with basally stored subglacial waters from arctic and alpine glaciers and the only other measurements of sub ice sheet chemistry to date that emerging from beneath law dome near casey station sw antarctica during a jokulhlaup we find that the chemistries pose significant questions about the hydrology and biogeochemistry of ice sheet beds copyright 2010 john wiley sons ltd