late surge glacial conditions on bakaninbreen svalbard and implications for surge termination 1 bakaninbreen is a polythermal glacier in southern spitsbergen svalbard that last surged between 1985 and 1995 seismic reflection data were acquired during early quiescence in spring 1998 just upstream of the surge front the results were combined with complementary ground penetrating radar data to investigate the glacial structure and basal conditions we find no difference between the ice thickness values determined from the seismic and radar methods suggesting that any layer of basal ice cannot be greater than 5 m thick interpretation of the amplitude of the seismic reflections indicates the presence of permafrost close to the glacier base a thin layer of thawed deforming sediment separates the glacier from this underlying permafrost in an area just upstream of the surge front the permafrost becomes discontinuous and may even be absent the ice being underlain by 10 15 m of thawed sediments overlying deeper bedrock high pressure water is believed to have been required to maintain the propagation of the surge and this area of thawed sediment is interpreted as a route for that water to escape from the basal system when the surge front passed over this thawed bed the escaping water reduced the pressure in the subglacial hydraulic system initiating the termination of the surge surge termination was therefore primarily controlled by the presurge permafrost distribution beneath the glacier rather than any feature of the surge itself this termination mechanism is probably limited to surges in polythermal glaciers but the techniques used may have wider glaciological applications

rheology of ice at the bed of engabreen norway a three dimensional finite element model is used to analyze field data collected as dirty basal ice flowed past an instrumented obstacle at the bed of engabreen a temperate glacier in northern norway the ice is modeled as an incompressible power law fluid with viscosity b 2 1 n 2n d where d is the second invariant of the stretching tensor and b and n are two parameters using measurements obtained in 1996 and 1997 two values of b are obtained one using the measured normal stress difference across the obstacle and the other using the measured bed parallel force over the instrument these two values are not equal probably owing to small frictional forces at the bed unaccounted for in the numerical model hence b ranges between 1 9 10 7 and 3 2 10 7 pa s 1 3 in 1996 and between 2 2 10 7 and 4 1 10 7 pa s 1 3 in 1997 these values are smaller than measured elsewhere for clean glacier or laboratory ice field measurements of water content fabric and texture of the basal ice suggest that unbound water between thin sediment layers and lamellae of clean ice may act as a lubricant and significantly weaken the ice near isotropic fabrics indicate that preferred fabric orientation does not enhance the deformation

direct observation of basal sliding and deformation of basal drift at sub freezing temperatures in a tunnel at the base of sub polar urumqi glacier no 1 china three new mechanisms of glacier flow at sub freezing temperatures have been observed taken individually or in combination these modes of flow can account for nearly all 60 80 of the overall glacier motion and yet they act only within the lowermost 1 2 of the effective glacier thickness these mechanisms are 1 enhanced deformation of the frozen and ice laden subglacial drift 2 motion across discrete shear planes or shear bands within the frozen drift or at the ice drift interface and 3 basal sliding at an ice rock interface at a temperature of nearly 5 c the ice laden drift has an effective viscosity of more than one hundred times less than that measured in the overlying ice thus allowing very rapid shear deformation the observed rate or basal sliding at the ice rock interface agrees favorably with that predicted by the recent work of shreve 1984 if proper account is taken of the measured surface roughness and reduced ice viscosity

cold surface layer thinning on storglaciaren sweden observed by repeated ground penetrating radar surveys 1 a characteristic feature of ground penetrating radar gpr surveys on polythermal glaciers is an internal reflection presumably caused by the cold temperate transition surface cts hence providing a possible tool for mapping thermal structure with high accuracy comparison of detailed temperature measurements in bore holes and gpr profiles at 345 mhz and 800 mhz center frequencies on storglaciaren sweden show that the cts can be detected and mapped with an accuracy of about 1 m at both frequencies a comparison between comprehensive gpr surveys of the cold surface layer separated by 12 years 1989 2001 shows a substantial and complex thinning of the cold layer an overall decrease of 8 3 m 22 of average thickness of the cts depth is much larger than uncertainties in cts depth determinations the stability of the cold surface layer depends on the net ice ablation at the surface and the downward migration of cts there is no evidence of substantial increased net ablation between the survey dates that could explain the observed thinning however small increase in average winter air temperature a limiting factor for the temperature gradient through the cold surface layer may provide a partial explanation the weaker temperature gradient reduces the transport of latent heat from the cts thus slowing down its downward migration

interpretation of borehole inclinometer data a general theory applied to a new instrument borehole inclinometers are standard equipment for field glaciologists and are commonly used for investigating the flow law of ice and for measuring the spatial position of englacial and sub surface sensors the recent development at the university of british columbia ubc of a prototype inclinometer that employs a three component fluxgate magentometer to obtain a compass bearing has stimulated our interest in borehole inclinometry following a review of various approaches to glacier inclinometry we present a unified theory of data interpretation that can be applied to all inclinometers discuss the application of the theory to the ubc inclinometer and discuss the sensitivity of the theory to error in the data

tidal current effects on temperature in diffuse hydrothermal flow guaymas basin a twelve day record of temperature collected from the diffuse flow area of a guaymas basin hydrothermal site exhibits variations from a minimum of 3 05 c to a maximum of 4 87 c whose periodicity is correlated with tides measured at the nearby town of guaymas a simple model based on the hypothesis that temperature variations result as changes in tidal bottom currents induce changes in the height of the thermal boundary layer is in good quantitative agreement with observed temperatures for most of the record the success of this model illustrates that the effects of tidal currents can be strong enough to dominate the time variability of a temperature signal at a fixed point in hydrothermal flow therefore tidal currents must be taken into account when using temperature measurements to estimate time varying heat fluxes from hydrothermal diffuse flow regions

spatial variability in the flow of a valley glacier deformation of a large array of boreholes measurements of the deformation of a dense array of boreholes in worthington glacier alaska show that the glacier moves with generally bed parallel motion strain in the 200 m deep valley glacier is constant near the surface but follows a nonlinear vertical profile below a depth of about 120 m by a depth of 180 m the octahedral strain rate reaches 0 35 yr 1 the three dimensional velocity field shows spatial complexity with significant deviations from plane strain despite relatively simple valley geometry in the vicinity of the 6 10 6 m 3 study volume no evidence was found for time varying deformation or movement along localized shear planes observations were made by repeatedly measuring the long axis geometry of 31 closely spaced boreholes over a 70 day period and three additional holes after 1 full year of deformation the holes were spaced 15 to 30 m apart installation and measurement of such a large number of boreholes required the development of a semiautomated hot water drilling system that creates straight and vertical boreholes with uniform walls the equipment and procedures enables borehole profiles to be measured without the use of hole casing inclinometry measurements collected in the holes were processed analyzed for error and visualized as a fully three dimensional data set the new methods offer unique insight into small scale spatial and temporal variations in the pattern of flow in a valley glacier

glacier surge propagation by thermal evolution at the bed bakaninbreen southern svalbard began a prolonged surge during 1985 in 1986 an internal reflecting horizon on radio echo sounding data was interpreted to show that the position of the surge front coincided with a transition between areas of warm unfrozen and cold frozen bed ground penetrating radar lines run in 1996 and 1998 during early quiescence show that the basal region of the glacier is characterized by a strong reflection interpreted as the top of a thick layer of sediment rich basal ice down glacier of the present surge front features imaged beneath the basal reflection are interpreted as the bottom of the basal ice layer the base of a permafrost layer and local ice lenses this indicates that this region of the bed is cold up glacier of the surge front a scattering zone above the basal reflection is interpreted as warm ice there is no evidence for this warm zone down glacier of the surge front nor do we see basal permafrost up glacier of it thus as in early surge phase the location of the surge front is now at the transition between warm and cold ice at the glacier bed we suggest that the propagation of the front is associated with this basal thermal transition throughout the surge because propagation of the front occurs rapidly and generates only limited heat basal motion during fast flow must have been restricted to a thin layer at the bed and occurred by sliding or deformation localized at the ice bed interface

glacier motion dominated by processes deep in underlying till black rapids glacier is a 40 km long surge type glacier in the central alaska range in spring 1997 a wireline drill rig was set up at a location where the measured surface velocities are high and seasonal and annual velocity variations are large the drilling revealed a layer of subglacial till up to 7 m thick that is believed to be water saturated at one location a string of instruments containing three dual axis tiltmeters and one piezometer was successfully introduced into the till the tiltmeters monitored the inclination of the borehole at the ice till interface and at 1 and 2 m into the till for 410 days they showed that no significant deformation occurred in the upper 2 m of the till layer and no significant amount of the basal motion was due to sliding of the ice over the till the measured surface velocity at the drill site is about 60 m a 1 of which 20 30 m a can be accounted for by ice deformation almost the entire amount of basal motion 30 40 m a 1 was taken up at a depth of 2 m in the till possibly in discrete shear layers or as sliding of till over the underlying bedrock we propose that the large scale mobilization of such till layers is a key factor in initiating glacier surges

flow thermal structure and subglacial conditions of a surge type glacier temperature measurements in a subpolar surge type glacier reveal a distinctive thermal structure associated with the boundary between the ice reservoir and receiving areas in the receiving area the glacier is cold based but bottom temperature has increased as much as 0 5 c between 1981 and 1982 and the basal heat flux is roughly 10 times the expected geothermal flux water percolation through permeable subglacial material is the probable energy source deformation of the substrate could destroy this drainage system and trigger a surge

investigating the ratio of basal drag and driving stress in relation to bedrock topography during a melt season on storglaciaren sweden using force budget analysis this thesis contributes to the understanding of glacier response to climate change by ice dynamical studies on storglaciaren sweden and bonnevie svendsenbreen kibergbreen and plogbreen in dronning maud land antarctica ice surface velocities ice geometry and temperature information is fed through a force budget model to calculate ice mass outflux of these glacial systems via three dimensional stress distributions for a flux gate field data were collected through repeated dgps and gpr observations on storglaciaren between july 2000 to september 2001 and on kibergbreen and plobreen during the swedarp 2002 03 expedition to antarctica the work was strongly supported by remotely sensed information the results from storglaciaren show a strength in the force budget model to discern both spatial and temporal variability in ice dynamical patterns it highlights the influence of seasonality and bedrock topography upon glacier flow a modeling experiment on bonnevie svendsenbreen suggested that ice temperature increases substantially under conditions of high stress 0 4 mpa due to strain heating this provides a positive feedback loop increasing ice deformation as long as it overcomes the advection of cool ice from the surface these results explain to some extent the mechanism behind fast flowing ice streams mass flux caclulations from bonnevie svendsenbreen suggest that the outflux given from force budget calculations can be used as a gauge for influx assuming steady state conditions plogbreen receives an influx of 0 48 0 1 km3 a 1 and expedites a discharge volume of 0 55 0 05 km3 a 1 this indicative negative mass balance is explained by a falling trend in upstream accumulation and the recent rise in global sea level as it is likely to induce glacier acceleration due to a reduction in resistive forces at the site of the gate this result is comparable with other antarctic studies reporting negative mass balances e g from wais as caused by changes in the global atmospheric circulation pattern

thermally controlled glacier surging bakaninbreen in svalbard and trapridge glacier in yukon territory canada are two prominent examples of surging glaciers which are thought to be controlled by their thermal regime both glaciers have developed large bulges which have propagated forward as travelling wave fronts and which are thought to divide relatively stagnant downstream cold based ice from faster moving warm based upstream ice additionally both glaciers are underlain by a wet metres thick layer of deforming till we develop a simple model for the cyclic surging behaviour of these glaciers which interrelates the motion of the ice and till through a description of the subglacial hydrology we find that oscillations surges can occur if the subglacial hydrological transmissivity is sufficiently low and the till layer is sufficiently thin and we suggest that these oscillations are associated with the development and propagation of a travelling wave front down the glacier we therefore interpret the travelling wave fronts on both trapridge glacier and bakaninbreen as manifestations of surges in addition we find that the violence of the surge in the model is associated with the resistance to ice flow offered by undulations in the bed and the efficiency with which occasional hydrological events can release water accumulated at the glacier sole

ice flow across a warm based cold based transition at a glacier margin where polythermal glaciers have frozen margins that buttress otherwise temperate based sliding ice longitudinal compression can strongly influence ice flow trajectory and consequently sediment transport paths past efforts to model flow in the vicinity of a basal thermal transition btt have generally relied on simplified boundary conditions or rheological idealizations making these model results difficult to apply to real glacier termini herein we present results of numerical simulations using a power law rheology and with boundary conditions that better represent the frozen margin model results indicate that a transition to a non sliding frozen margin causes a decline in surface velocity made possible by upward ice flow implying either enhanced ablation for steady state simulations or the formation of a surface bulge permitting ice loss by ablation combined with numerical smoothing of the basal slip transition subdues basal stress concentrations and thereby inhibits development of structural discontinuities such as thrust faults upward ice flow is accommodated by vertical extension up glacier of the btt this strain regime can potentially account for key structural features in polythermal glacier termini without appealing to thrusting

instruments and methods direct measurement of sliding at the glacier bed sliding at the base of trapridge glacier yukon territory canada was measured using a drag spool we describe this simple and inexpensive instrument as well as its installation and operation from 1990 to 1992 seven sites were instrumented with drag spools at six of the sites basal sliding during the period of observation accounted for 50 70 of the total flow observed at the glacier surface the contribution from ice creep is known to be small so most of the remaining surface motion must be attributed to subglacial sediment deformation for the seventh site the observed sliding rate was 90 of the total flow an indication that the sliding contribution varies spatially across the bed diurnal variations in the response of one of our instruments appear to be correlated to subglacial water pressure fluctuations and are interpreted in terms of changes in sliding velocity rather than the opening and closing of basal cavities

debris entrainment and transfer in polythermal valley glaciers hambrey mj bennett mr dowdeswell ja et al 1999 debris entrainment and transfer in polythermal valley glaciers journal of glaciology 45 149 69 86 published 1999

the thermal regime of sub polar glaciers mapped by multi frequency radio echo sounding radio echo soundings provide an effective tool for mapping the thermal regimes of polythermal glaciers on a regional scale radar signals of 320 370 mhz penetrate ice at sub freezing temperatures but are reflected from the top of layers of ice which are at the melting point and contain water radar signals of 5 20 mhz on the other hand see through both the cold and the temperate ice down to the glacier bed radio echo soundings at these frequencies have been used to investigate the thermal regimes of four polythermal glaciers in svalbard kongsvegen uversbreen midre lovenbreen and austre broggerbreen in the ablation area of kongsvegen a cold surface layer 50 160m thick was underlain by a warm basal layer which is advected from the temperate accumulation area the surface ablation of this cold layer may be compensated by freezing at its lower cold temperate interface this requires that the free water content in the ice at the freezing interface is about 1 of the volume the cold surface layer is thicker beneath medial moraines and where cold based hanging glaciers enter the main ice stream on uversbreen the thermal regime was similar to that of kongsvegen a temperate hole was found in the otherwise cold surface layer of the ablation area in a surface depression between kongsvegen and uversbreen where meltwater accumulates during the summer near the subglacial lake setevatnet 250 m a s l lovenbreen was frozen to the bed at the snout and along all the mountain slopes but beneath the central part of the glacier a warm basal layer up to 50m thick was fed by temperate ice from two cirques on austre broggerbreen a temperate basal layer was not detected by radio echo soundings but the basal ice was observed to be at the melting point in two boreholes

effect of a cold margin on ice flow at the terminus of storglaciaren sweden implications for sediment transport the cold based termini of polythermal glaciers are usually assumed to adhere strongly to an immobile substrate and thereby supply significant resistance to the flow of warm based ice up glacier this compressive environment is commonly thought to uplift basal sediment to the surface of the glacier by folding and thrust faulting we present model and field evidence from the terminus of storglaci aren sweden showing that the cold margin provides limited resistance to flow from up glacier ice temperatures indicate that basal freezing occurs in this zone at 10 1 1 0 2 ma 1 but model results indicate that basal motion at rates greater than 1 m a 1 must nevertheless persist there for surface and basal velocities to be consistent with measurements estimated longitudinal compressive stresses of 20 25 kpa within the terminus further indicate that basal resistance offered by the cold based terminus is small these results indicate that where polythermal glaciers are underlain by unlithified sediments ice flow trajectories and sediment transport pathways may be affected by subglacial topography and hydrology more than by the basal thermal regime

controlled moraines origins characteristics and palaeoglaciological implications abstract controlled moraines are supraglacial debris concentrations that become hummocky moraine upon de icing and possess clear linearity due to the inheritance of the former pattern of debris rich folia in the parent ice linearity is most striking wherever glacier ice cores still exist but it increasingly deteriorates with progressive melt out as a result moraine linearity has a low preservation potential in deglaciated terrains but hummocky moraine tracts previously interpreted as evidence of areal stagnation may instead record receding polythermal glacier margins in which debris rich ice was concentrated in frozen toe zones recent applications of modern glaciological analogues to palaeoglaciological reconstructions have implied that a controlled moraine development can be ascribed to a specific process e g englacial thrusting or supercooling and b controlled moraine preservation potential is good enough to imply the occurrence of the specific process in former glacier snouts e g ancient polythermal or supercooled snouts these assumptions are tested using case studies of controlled moraine construction in which a wide range of debris entrainment and debris rich ice thickening mechanisms are seen to produce the same geomorphic features polythermal conditions are crucial to the concentration of supraglacial debris and controlled moraines in glacier snouts via processes that are most effective at the glacier permafrost interface end moraines lie on a process form continuum constrained by basal thermal regime the morphological expression of englacial structures in controlled moraine ridges is most striking while the moraines retain ice cores but the final deposits landforms tend to consist of discontinuous transverse ridges with intervening hummocks preserving only a weak impression of the former englacial structure these are arranged in arcuate zones of hummocky moraine up to 2 km wide containing ice walled lake plains and lying down flow of streamlined landforms produced by warm based ice a variety of debris entrainment mechanisms can produce the same geomorphic signature spatial and temporal variability in process form relationships will lead to the sequential development of different types of end moraines during the recession of a glacier or ice sheet margin

a fully three dimensional finite element model applied to velocities on storglaciaren sweden a finite element model that solves the stress balance equations for glacier dynamics in three dimensions has been developed by extending previous flow plane models this model retains all terms of the stress tensor and uses a glen type power law for viscosity calculations in the paper the model is applied to storglaciaren sweden to explore both the glacier s dynamics and the model s characteristics values of the stiffness parameter b of 0 20 0 22 mpa year 1 n were required to match observed strain rates on storglaciaren overall velocities required imposition of a problematically small sliding speed stress fields implied by the model simulation showed that the glacier receives its largest driving force from a high slope zone near the equilibrium line and that a large proportion of the resistive stress comes from lateral drag lateral drag is enhanced on this glacier by being frozen to ts sidewalls and by a turning of the main flow as it comes out of the main or northern cirque

short term velocity and water pressure variations down glacier from a riegel storglaciaren sweden during the 1991 94 summer field seasons time correlated measurements of water pressure and surface speed were made over and down glacier from a major riegel on storglaciaren sweden measurements were made at sub hourly time scales in order to discern details in the diurnal cycle large water input events typically associated with rain storms produced coherent lagged surface velocity responses that could be understood in terms of till deformation or decoupling and these have been discussed elsewhere the consequences of smaller diurnal water pressure events were more enigmatic in that acceleration of ice flow generally preceded the onset of the local water pressure rise from consideration of these data and other work done on the hydrology of storglaciaren we infer that the ice in this area is generally pushed from behind via a relaxation in extensional strain across the riegel hence accelerations occur in response to increases in water pressure that occur up glacier and that precede local water pressure rises in addition following a period of large storm events surface speeds became more spatially coherent and were in phase with the diurnal ater pressure cycle this suggests that the large water pressure events lead to a spatially more homogeneous subglacial drainage system sliding laws need to take into accoun such temporal changes in spatial coherence of the subglacial drainage system

multiproxy fossil comparison reveals contrasting surface ocean conditions in the western iceland sea for the last two interglacials abstract dinoflagellate cyst dinocyst coccolith and planktic foraminiferal assemblages from a core in the western iceland sea were used to reconstruct and compare the surface ocean developments of the holocene and the last interglacial marine isotopic stage or mis 5e while increasing subpolar planktic foraminifers from 10 ka indicate subsurface warming peaking around 7 5 ka the dinocyst data suggest that the uppermost ocean remained dominated by cold waters until 6 5 ka a reduced advection of cold polar waters through the east greenland east icelandic current thereafter entailed warmest and most saline holocene conditions between 6 5 and 5 ka in turn followed by a general cooling trend by contrast both planktic foraminifers and dinocysts show an increased presence of atlantic type waters from 122 ka onward resulting in a mis 5e thermal optimum around 120 5 ka nonetheless occasional freshwater input from melting drift ice created stratified but also seasonally variable conditions during this first half of mis 5e this stratification signature disappeared at 120 ka when a marked repositioning of the oceanographic fronts occurred slightly colder conditions are indicated by both phyto and zooplankton from there on until the end of mis 5e around 117 ka a late mis 5e cooling at the iceland plateau is opposite to a late mis 5e optimum observed in the eastern nordic seas this regional difference is likely explained by various feedback mechanisms following the major reorganisation of the oceanic fronts at 120 ka the holocene and mis 5e interglacial variability is not reflected in the quasi monospecific coccolith assemblages and illustrates the low sensitivity of living coccolithophore communities to subtle temperature changes in the low temperature regions of the nordic seas overall quite different surface water properties appear to have characterised both interglacial intervals with a higher share of warm atlantic elements in the planktic communities during mis 5e this suggests a higher contribution of atlantic waters in the southwestern nordic seas probably due to a more northward expansion of the irminger current under weakened polar east greenland east icelandic currents such a reduced influence of polar waters in the southwestern nordic seas may thus explain other evidence for relatively warm conditions in mis 5e all around southern greenland

genesis of hummocky moraines by thrusting in glacier ice evidence from svalbard and britain irregular mounds of glacial debris commonly referred to as 9hummocky moraine9 until recently were linked to ice stagnation during rapid climatic amelioration however recent work in scotland has demonstrated that some hummocky moraine dating from the younger dryas event c 10 000 years bp was the product of deposition at active ice margins observations at modern high arctic glacier margins in svalbard 76 80 n indicate that some moraines of this type form under a dynamic glaciological regime mainly by thrusting in active polythermal ice undergoing strong longitudinal compression this situation is particularly common where there is a transition from warm based ice in the interior of a glacier to cold based ice at the margins or snout from their morphological similarity rectilinear slopes facing up glacier and irregular downglacier faces and apparent stacking of slabs of sediment of subglacial derivation it is concluded that some assemblages of british moraines are also the product of thrusting this process appears to be most dominant in polythermal glaciers rather than in temperate glaciers on this basis it is tentatively suggested that the younger dryas in britain was characterized by a climatic regime similar to that in svalbard today mean annual temperature 5 c 400 1000 mm precipitation and that the associated glaciers may have been of polythermal character

flow mechanism of glaciers on soft beds subhourly measurements of bed deformation bed shear strength subglacial water pressure and surface speed at storglaciaren a glacier in northern sweden showed that the shear strain rates of the bed decrease during periods of high water pressure and surface speed high water pressures appear to be accompanied by a reduction in the coupling of ice with the bed that is sufficient to reduce or eliminate shearing the instability of large ice masses may result from similar decoupling rather than from pervasive bed deformation as has been commonly thought

spatial pattern and stability of the cold surface layer of storglaciaren sweden the mechanisms controlling the spatial distribution and temporal fluctuations of the thermal structure in polythermal glaciers have to date been poorly investigated and are not fully understood