A multi‐dimensional analysis of pro‐glacial landscape change at Sólheimajökull, southern Iceland

Abstract

Pro‐glacial landscapes are some of the most active on Earth. Previous studies of pro‐glacial landscape change have often been restricted to considering either sedimentological, geomorphological or topographic parameters in isolation and are often mono‐dimensional. This study utilized field surveys and digital elevation model (DEM) analyses to quantify planform, elevation and volumetric pro‐glacial landscape change at Sólheimajökull in southern Iceland for multiple time periods spanning from 1960 to 2010. As expected, the most intense geomorphological changes persistently occurred in the ice‐proximal area. During 1960 to 1996 the pro‐glacial river was relatively stable. However, after 2001 braiding intensity was higher, channel slope shallower and there was a shift from overall incision to aggradation. Attributing these pro‐glacial river channel changes to the 1999 jökulhlaup is ambiguous because it coincided with a switch from a period of glacier advance to that of glacier retreat. Furthermore, glacier retreat (of ~40 m yr−1) coincided with ice‐marginal lake development and these two factors have both altered the pro‐glacial river channel head elevation. From 2001 to 2010 progressive increase in channel braiding and progressive downstream incision occurred; these together probably reflecting stream power due to increased glacier ablation and reduced sediment supply due to trapping of sediment by the developing ice‐marginal lake. Overall, this study highlights rapid spatiotemporal pro‐glacial landscape reactions to changes in glacial meltwater runoff regimes, glacier terminus position, sediment supply and episodic events such as jökuhlaups. Recognizing the interplay of these controlling factors on pro‐glacial landscapes will be important for understanding the geological record and for landscape stability assessments. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Ice-cored moraine degradation mapped and quantified using an unmanned aerial vehicle: A case study from a polythermal glacier in Svalbard

“…Use of existing 'stable' features for ground control is a limitation of studies that use photogrammetric methods to produce DEMs of changing geomorphological systems (e.g. Schiefer and Gilbert, 2007;Staines et al, 2015), and means it is rarely possible to achieve an optimal distribution of GCPs (ground control points).…”

“…For additional validation, randomly generated spot heights (n = 4370) from more geomorphologically 'stable' areas (e.g. Staines et al, 2015) (Fig. 3A).…”

Interannual surface evolution of an Antarctic blue-ice moraine using multi-temporal DEMs

“…Sedimentological characterization of the moraine basin by Westoby et al (2015) revealed low median surface grain sizes toward the rear of the basin, which may be indicative of a longer sediment exposure time for, or preferential exposure to, in situ weathering relative to the remainder of the site, leading to the comminution of surficial deposits and the enhancement of sub-debris ice ablation, which promotes terrain relaxation (e.g. Krüger and Kjaer, 2000;Schomacker, 2008;Irvine-Fynn et al, 2011;Staines et al, 2015).…”

“…Baltsavias et al, 2001;Pitkänen and Kajuutti, 2004;Keutterling and Thomas, 2006;Schwalbe and Maas, 2009;Immerzeel et al, 2014;Pepin et al, 2014;Whitehead et al, 2014;Gabbud et al, 2015;Kraaijenbrink et al, 2016;Piermattei et al, 2015;Ryan et al, 2015;Kääb et al, 2014); mapping the redistribution of proglacial sediment (e.g. Milan et al, 2007;IrvineFynn et al, 2011;Dunning et al, 2013;Staines et al, 2015) and moraine development ; the characterization of glacier surface roughness (e.g. Sanz-Ablanedo et al, 2012;Irvine-Fynn et al, 2014), glacial sedimentology (Westoby et al, 2015) and hydrology (Rippin et al, 2015) as well as input data for surface energy balance modelling (e.g.…”

Pointcatcher software: analysis of glacial time-lapse photography and integration with multitemporal digital elevation models

“…Eiken and Sund, 2012), although it is relatively time-consuming (restricting the number of features processed) and is unlikely to deliver sub-pixel accuracies. This is (Staines and others, 2015). In (b), the box indicates the surveyed region shown in Figure 8a, with the black circle giving the location of the TLS and time-lapse camera.…”