Subglacial water drainage, storage, and piracy beneath the Greenland ice sheet

Geophysical Research Letters

Volumn 42, Issue 18, 2015, Pages 7606-7614

  Lindback K ^a   Pettersson, R ^a   Hubbard, A L ^b,c   Doyle, S H ^c   Van As, D ^d   Mikkelsen, A B ^e   Fitzpatrick, A A ^c  

^a UPPSALA UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

^b UNIVERSITY OF TROMSØ   (Norway)

^c ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^d GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF DENMARK AND GREENLAND   (Denmark)

^e UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN   (Denmark)

Author keywords

Greenland ice sheet; ice sheet dynamics; ice sheet hydrology

Indexed keywords

CATCHMENTS; GLACIERS;

GREENLAND ICE SHEET; HYDROLOGICAL ANALYSIS; ICE SHEET; ICE SHEET DYNAMICS; MEASUREMENTS AND MODELING; SURFACE ELEVATION CHANGES; SURFACE TEMPERATURES; TRANSIENT BEHAVIOR;

ICE;

CATCHMENT; DISCHARGE; DRAINAGE; GLACIAL HYDROLOGY; MEASUREMENT METHOD; MELTWATER; NUMERICAL MODEL; PROGLACIAL ENVIRONMENT; RADAR; SUBGLACIAL ENVIRONMENT; SURFACE TEMPERATURE; WATER STORAGE;

ARCTIC; GREENLAND; GREENLAND ICE SHEET;

EID: 84945208619     PISSN: 00948276     EISSN: 19448007     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/2015GL065393     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Allison, I., R. B. Alley, H. A. Fricker, R. H. Thomas, and, R. C. Warner, (2009), Ice sheet mass balance and sea level, Antarct. Sci., 21 (05), 413, doi: 10.1017/S0954102009990137.
2. Anandakrishnan, S., and, R. B. Alley, (1997), Stagnation of ice stream C, West Antarctica by water piracy, Geophys. Res. Lett., 24 (3), 265-268, doi: 10.1029/96GL04016.
3. Andrews, L., G. Catania, M. J. Hoffman, J. D. Gulley, M. P. Lüthi, C. Ryser, R. L. Hawley, and, T. A. Neumann, (2014), Direct observations of evolving subglacial drainage beneath the Greenland ice sheet, Nature, 514, doi: 10.1038/nature13796.
4. Bamber, J. L., et al., (2013a), A new bed elevation dataset for Greenland, Cryosphere, 7 (2), 499-510, doi: 10.5194/tc-7-499-2013.
5. Bamber, J. L., M. J. Siegert, J. A. Griggs, S. J. Marshall, and, G. Spada, (2013b), Paleofluvial mega-canyon beneath the central Greenland ice sheet, Science, 341 (6149), 997-999, doi: 10.1126/science.1239794.
6. Banwell, A. F., I. C. Willis, and, N. S. Arnold, (2013), Modeling subglacial water routing at Paakitsoq, W Greenland, J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf., 118, 1282-1295, doi: 10.1002/jgrf.20093.
7. Bartholomew, I., P. Nienow, D. Mair, A. Hubbard, M. A. King, and, A. Sole, (2010), Seasonal evolution of subglacial drainage and acceleration in a Greenland outlet glacier, Nat. Geosci., 3 (6), 408-411, doi: 10.1038/ngeo863.
8. Bartholomew, I., P. Nienow, A. Sole, D. Mair, T. Cowton, S. Palmer, and, J. Wadham, (2011), Supraglacial forcing of subglacial drainage in the ablation zone of the Greenland ice sheet, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L08502, doi: 10.1029/2011GL047063.
9. Bartholomew, I., P. Nienow, A. Sole, D. Mair, T. Cowton, and, M. A. King, (2012), 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, Geophys. Res. Lett., 117, F03002, doi: 10.1029/2011JF002220.
10. Budd, W. F., and, D. B. Carter, (1971), An analysis of the relation between the surface and bedrock profiles of ice caps, J. Glaciol., 10 (59), 197-209.
11. Carter, S. P., H. A. Fricker, and, M. R. Siegfried, (2013), Evidence of rapid subglacial water piracy under Whillans Ice Stream, West Antarctica, J. Glaciol., 59 (218), 1147-1162, doi: 10.3189/2013JoG13J085.
12. Chandler, D. M., et al., (2013), Evolution of the subglacial drainage system beneath the Greenland ice sheet revealed by tracers, Nat. Geosci., 6 (3), 195-198, doi: 10.1038/ngeo1737.
13. Cowton, T., P. Nienow, A. Sole, J. Wadham, G. Lis, I. Bartholomew, D. Mair, and, D. Chandler, (2013), Evolution of drainage system morphology at a land-terminating Greenlandic outlet glacier, J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf., 118, 29-41, doi: 10.1029/2012JF002540.
14. Dow, C. F., B. Kulessa, I. C. Rutt, S. H. Doyle, and, A. Hubbard, (2014), Upper bounds on subglacial channel development for interior regions of the Greenland ice sheet, J. Glaciol., 60 (224), 1044-1052, doi: 10.3189/2014JoG14J093.
15. Doyle, S. H., A. Hubbard, A. A. W. Fitzpatrick, D. van As, A. B. Mikkelsen, R. Pettersson, and, B. Hubbard, (2014), Persistent flow acceleration within the interior of the Greenland ice sheet, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 899-905, doi: 10.1002/2013GL058933.
16. Doyle, S. H., et al., (2015), Amplified melt and flow of the Greenland ice sheet driven by late-summer cyclonic rainfall, Nat. Geosci., doi: 10.1038/ngeo2482.
17. Fitzpatrick, A. A. W., A. Hubbard, I. Joughin, D. J. Quincey, D. van As, A. P. B. Mikkelsen, S. H. Doyle, B. Hasholt, and, G. A. Jones, (2013), Ice flow dynamics and surface meltwater flux at a land-terminating sector of the Greenland ice sheet, J. Glaciol., 59 (216), 687-696, doi: 10.3189/2013JoG12J143.
18. Fitzpatrick, A. A. W., A. L. Hubbard, J. E. Box, D. J. Quincey, D. van As, A. P. B. Mikkelsen, S. H. Doyle, C. F. Dow, B. Hasholt, and, G. A. Jones, (2014), A decade (2002-2012) of supraglacial lake volume estimates across Russell Glacier, West Greenland, Cryosphere, 8 (1), 107-121, doi: 10.5194/tc-8-107-2014.
19. Fricker, H. A., T. Scambos, R. Bindschadler, and, L. Padman, (2007), An active subglacial water system in West Antarctica mapped from space, Science, 315 (5818), 1544-1548, doi: 10.1126/science.1136897.
20. Gleason, C. J., L. C. Smith, D. C. Finnegan, A. L. LeWinter, L. H. Pitcher, and, V. W. Chu, (2015), Technical Note: Semi-automated effective width extraction from time-lapse RGB imagery of a remote, braided Greenlandic river, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 2963-2969, doi: 10.5194/hess-19-2963-2015.
21. Gudmundsson, G. H., (2003), Transmission of basal variability to a glacier surface, J. Geophys. Res., 108 (B5, 2253), doi: 10.1029/2002JB002107.
22. Hanna, E., et al., (2013), Ice-sheet mass balance and climate change, Nature, 498 (7452), 51-9, doi: 10.1038/nature12238.
23. Hasholt, B., A. Bech Mikkelsen, M. Holtegaard Nielsen, and, M. Andreas Dahl Larsen, (2013), Observations of runoff and sediment and dissolved loads from the Greenland ice sheet at Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland, 2007 to 2010, Zeitschrift für Geomorphol. Suppl. Issues, 57 (2), 3-27, doi: 10.1127/0372-8854/2012/S-00121.
24. Howat, I. M., A. Negrete, and, B. E. Smith, (2014), The Greenland Ice Mapping Project (GIMP) land classification and surface elevation data sets, Cryosphere, 8 (4), 1509-1518, doi: 10.5194/tc-8-1509-2014.
25. Joughin, I., B. E. Smith, I. M. Howat, T. Scambos, and, T. Moon, (2010), Greenland flow variability from ice-sheet-wide velocity mapping, J. Glaciol., 56 (197), 415-430, doi: 10.3189/002214310792447734.
26. Joughin, I., S. B. Das, G. E. Flowers, M. D. Behn, R. B. Alley, M. A. King, B. E. Smith, and, J. L. Bamber, (2013), Influence of ice-sheet geometry and supraglacial lakes on seasonal ice-flow variability, Cryosphere, 7, 1185-1192, doi: 10.5194/tc-7-1185-2013.
27. Karlsson, N. B., and, D. Dahl-Jensen, (2015), Response of the large-scale subglacial drainage system of Northeast Greenland to surface elevation changes, Cryosphere, 9, 1465-1479, doi: 10.5194/tc-9-1465-2015.
28. Langley, K., J. Kohler, K. Matsuoka, A. Sinisalo, T. Scambos, T. Neumann, A. Muto, J. G. Winther, and, M. Albert, (2011), Recovery Lakes, East Antarctica: Radar assessment of subglacial water extent, J. Geophys. Res., 38, L05501, doi: 10.1029/2010GL046094.
29. Leeson, A. A., A. Shepherd, K. Briggs, I. Howat, X. Fettweis, M. Morlighem, and, E. Rignot, (2014), Supraglacial lakes on the Greenland ice sheet advance inland under warming climate, Nat. Clim. Change, 1-5, doi: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2463.
30. Lewis, S., and, L. C. Smith, (2009), Hydrologic drainage of the Greenland ice sheet, Hydrol. Process., 23, 2004-2011, doi: 10.1002/hyp.
31. Lindbäck, K., and, R. Pettersson, (2015), Spectral roughness and glacial erosion of a land-terminating section of the Greenland ice sheet, Geomorphology, 238, 149-159, doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2015.02.027.
32. Lindbäck, K., R. Pettersson, S. H. Doyle, C. Helanow, P. Jansson, S. S. Kristensen, L. Stenseng, R. Forsberg, and, A. L. Hubbard, (2014), High-resolution ice thickness and bed topography of a land-terminating section of the Greenland ice sheet, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 6, 331-338, doi: 10.5194/essd-6-331-2014.
33. Livingstone, S. J., C. D. Clark, J. Woodward, and, J. Kingslake, (2013), Potential subglacial lake locations and meltwater drainage pathways beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, Cryosphere, 7 (6), 1721-1740, doi: 10.5194/tc-7-1721-2013.
34. Meierbachtol, T., J. Harper, and, N. Humphrey, (2013), Basal drainage system response to increasing surface melt on the Greenland ice sheet, Science, 341 (6147), 777-9, doi: 10.1126/science.1235905.
35. Mernild, S. H., and, B. Hasholt, (2009), Observed runoff, jökulhlaups and suspended sediment load from the Greenland ice sheet at Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland, 2007 and 2008, J. Glaciol., 55 (193), 855-858.
36. Mernild, S. H., G. E. Liston, K. Steffen, M. van den Broeke, and, B. Hasholt, (2010), Runoff and mass-balance simulations from the Greenland ice sheet at Kangerlussuaq (Søndre Strømfjord) in a 30-year perspective, 1979-2008, Cryosphere, 4 (2), 231-242, doi: 10.5194/tc-4-231-2010.
37. Morlighem, M., E. Rignot, J. Mouginot, H. Seroussi, and, E. Larour, (2014), Deeply incised submarine glacial valleys beneath the Greenland ice sheet, Nat. Geosci., 7, 18-22, doi: 10.1038/NGEO2167.
38. Palmer, S., A. Shepherd, P. Nienow, and, I. Joughin, (2011), Seasonal speedup of the Greenland ice sheet linked to routing of surface water, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 302 (3-4), 423-428, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2010.12.037.
39. Rennermalm, A. K., L. C. Smith, V. W. Chu, J. E. Box, R. R. Forster, M. R. Van den Broeke, D. Van As, and, S. E. Moustafa, (2013a), Evidence of meltwater retention within the Greenland ice sheet, Cryosphere, 7 (5), 1433-1445, doi: 10.5194/tc-7-1433-2013.
40. Rennermalm, A. K., et al., (2013b), Understanding Greenland ice sheet hydrology using an integrated multi-scale approach, Environ. Res. Lett., 8, 015017, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/015017.
41. Sergienko, O. V., (2013), Glaciological twins: Basally controlled subglacial and supraglacial lakes, J. Glaciol., 59 (213), 3-8, doi: 10.3189/2013JoG12J040.
42. Shepherd, A., A. Hubbard, P. Nienow, M. King, M. McMillan, and, I. Joughin, (2009), Greenland ice sheet motion coupled with daily melting in late summer, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L01501, doi: 10.1029/2008GL035758.
43. Shreve, R. L., (1972), Movement of water in glaciers, J. Glaciol., 11 (62), 205-214.
44. Smeets, C. J. P. P., W. Boot, A. Hubbard, R. Pettersson, F. Wilhelms, M. R. van den Broeke, and, R. van de Wal, (2012), Instruments and methods-A wireless subglacial probe for deep ice applications, J. Glaciol., 58 (211), 841-848, doi: 10.3189/2012JoG11J130.
45. Smith, L. C., V. W. Chu, K. Yang, C. J. Gleason, L. H. Pitcher, and, A. K. Rennermalm, (2015), Efficient meltwater drainage through supraglacial streams and rivers on the southwest Greenland ice sheet, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 112 (4), 1001-1006, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1413024112.
46. Sundal, A. V., A. Shepherd, P. Nienow, E. Hanna, S. Palmer, and, P. Huybrechts, (2011), Melt-induced speed-up of Greenland ice sheet offset by efficient subglacial drainage, Nature, 469 (7331), 521-524, doi: 10.1038/nature09740.
47. Tedstone, A. J., P. W. Nienow, A. J. Sole, D. W. F. Mair, T. R. Cowton, I. D. Bartholomew, and, M. A. King, (2013), Greenland ice sheet motion insensitive to exceptional meltwater forcing, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 110, 19,719-19,724, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1315843110.
48. van As, D., A. L. Hubbard, B. Hasholt, A. B. Mikkelsen, M. R. van den Broeke, and, R. S. Fausto, (2012), Large surface meltwater discharge from the Kangerlussuaq sector of the Greenland ice sheet during the record-warm year 2010 explained by detailed energy balance observations, Cryosphere, 6 (1), 199-209, doi: 10.5194/tc-6-199-2012.
49. van de Wal, R. S. W., and, A. J. Russell, (1994), A comparison of energy balance calculations, measured ablation and meltwater runoff near Sondre Stromfjord, West Greenland, Global Planet. Change, 9, 29-38, doi: 10.1016/0921-8181(94)90005-1.
50. van de Wal, R. S. W., W. Boot, M. R. van den Broeke, C. J. P. P. Smeets, C. H. Reijmer, J. J. A. Donker, and, J. Oerlemans, (2008), Large and rapid melt-induced velocity changes in the ablation zone of the Greenland ice sheet, Science, 321 (5885), 111-3, doi: 10.1126/science.1158540.
51. van de Wal, R. S. W., et al., (2015), Self-regulation of ice flow varies across the ablation area in south-west Greenland, Cryosphere, 9 (2), 603-611, doi: 10.5194/tc-9-603-2015.
52. Vaughan, D. G., H. F. J. Corr, A. M. Smith, H. D. Pritchard, and, A. Shepherd, (2008), Flow-switching and water piracy between Rutford ice stream and Carlson inlet, West Antarctica, J. Glaciol., 54 (184), 41-48, doi: 10.3189/002214308784409125.
53. Werder, M. A., I. J. Hewitt, C. G. Schoof, and, G. E. Flowers, (2013), Modeling channelized and distributed subglacial drainage in two dimensions, J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf., 118, 2140-2158, doi: 10.1002/jgrf.20146.
54. Wingham, D. J., M. J. Siegert, A. Shepherd, and, A. S. Muir, (2006), Rapid discharge connects Antarctic subglacial lakes, Nature, 440 (7087), 1033-6, doi: 10.1038/nature04660.
55. Wolovick, M. J., R. E. Bell, T. T. Creyts, and, N. Frearson, (2013), Identification and control of subglacial water networks under Dome A, Antarctica, J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf., 118, 1-15, doi: 10.1002/2012JF002555.
56. Wright, A., and, M. Siegert, (2012), A fourth inventory of Antarctic subglacial lakes, Antarct. Sci., 24 (6), 1-6, doi: 10.1017/S095410201200048X.
57. Wright, A. P., M. J. Siegert, A. M. Le Brocq, and, D. B. Gore, (2008), High sensitivity of subglacial hydrological pathways in Antarctica to small ice-sheet changes, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L17504, doi: 10.1029/2008GL034937.