Borehole drainage and its implications for the investigation of glacier hydrology: experiences from Haut Glacier d'Arolla, Switzerland

Gordon, Shulamit; Sharp, Martin; Hubbard, Bryn; Willis, Ian; Smart, C. C.; Copland, Luke; Harbor, Jonathan M.; Ketterling, Bradley

doi:10.1002/hyp.184

Cited by 28 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Arnold et al, 1998;Gordon et al, 2001;Kulessa et al, 2003). These studies give a sound knowledge of the hydrological configuration in the area beneath the main tongue of the glacier, about 1.5 km from its snout and labelled borehole array in Fig.…”

Section: Field Site and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 93%

A double continuum hydrological model for glacier applications

et al. 2014

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Abstract. The flow of glaciers and ice streams is strongly influenced by the presence of water at the interface between ice and bed. In this paper, a hydrological model evaluating the subglacial water pressure is developed with the final aim of estimating the sliding velocities of glaciers. The global model fully couples the subglacial hydrology and the ice dynamics through a water-dependent friction law. The hydrological part of the model follows a double continuum approach which relies on the use of porous layers to compute water heads in inefficient and efficient drainage systems. This method has the advantage of a relatively low computational cost that would allow its application to large ice bodies such as Greenland or Antarctica ice streams. The hydrological model has been implemented in the finite element code Elmer/Ice, which simultaneously computes the ice flow. Herein, we present an application to the Haut Glacier d'Arolla for which we have a large number of observations, making it well suited to the purpose of validating both the hydrology and ice flow model components. The selection of hydrological, under-determined parameters from a wide range of values is guided by comparison of the model results with available glacier observations. Once this selection has been performed, the coupling between subglacial hydrology and ice dynamics is undertaken throughout a melt season. Results indicate that this new modelling approach for subglacial hydrology is able to reproduce the broad temporal and spatial patterns of the observed subglacial hydrological system. Furthermore, the coupling with the ice dynamics shows good agreement with the observed spring speed-up.

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Section: Field Site and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 93%

A double continuum hydrological model for glacier applications

et al. 2014

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“…This was shown, in combination with other glaciological research techniques including dye tracing experiments, to be in response to an increasingly efficient drainage system throughout the Stagnation Glacier basin (see Irvine-Fynn, 2004). Englacial storage, as proposed by Gordon et al (2001) is tenable for the temperate ice locations, but is not so for cold ice where water pockets would refreeze in situ. Hydrologically isolated englacial water is, therefore, unlikely to pervade the cold ice snout of Stagnation Glacier.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Seasonal changes in ground‐penetrating radar signature observed at a polythermal glacier, Bylot Island, Canada

Irvine‐Fynn

Moorman

Williams

et al. 2006

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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In recent years, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has been increasingly used for characterization of subglacial and englacial environments at polythermal glaciers. The geophysical method is able to exploit the dielectric difference between water, air, sediment and ice, allowing delineation of subsurface hydrological, thermal and structural conditions. More recent GPR research has endeavoured to examine temporal change in glaciers, in particular the distribution of the cold ice zone at polythermal glaciers. However, the exact nature of temporal change that can be identified using GPR has not been fully examined. This research presents the results of three GPR surveys conducted over the course of a summer ablation season at a polythermal glacier in the Canadian Arctic. A total of approximately 30 km of GPR profiles were collected in 2002 repeatedly covering the lower 2 km of Stagnation Glacier, Bylot Island (72?58? N 78?22? W). Comparison between profiles indicated changes in the radar signature, including increased noise, appearance and disappearance of englacial reflections, and signal attenuation in the latter survey. Further, an area of chaotic returns in up-glacier locations, which was interpreted to be a wet temperate ice zone, showed marked recession over the course of the ablation season. Combining all the temporal changes that were detected by GPR, results indicate that a polythermal glacier may exhibit strongly seasonal changes in hydrological and thermal characteristics throughout the ice body, including the drainage of 17 000 m3 of temporarily stored intra-glacial meltwater. It is also proposed that the liquid water content in the temperate ice zone of polythermal glaciers can be described as a fraction of a specific retention capacity. Copyright ? 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer reviewe

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“…Hot-water drilling allowed direct observation and instrumentation of the bed which led to a marked refinement in our understanding of the complexity of the subglacial drainage system structure (Gordon et al, 2001). This area of science evolved towards an appreciation that microbes have a significant impact on the types and rates of reactions that occur at the beds of smaller ice masses (Sharp et al, 1999;Skidmore et al, 2000;Tranter et al, 2002;Wadham et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrochemistry of ice stream beds—evaporitic or microbial effects?

Skidmore¹,

Tranter²,

Tulaczyk³

et al. 2010

Hydrological Processes

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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 jökulhlaup. We find that the chemistries pose significant questions about the hydrology and biogeochemistry of ice sheet beds.

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Borehole drainage and its implications for the investigation of glacier hydrology: experiences from Haut Glacier d'Arolla, Switzerland

Cited by 28 publications

References 60 publications

A double continuum hydrological model for glacier applications

A double continuum hydrological model for glacier applications

Seasonal changes in ground‐penetrating radar signature observed at a polythermal glacier, Bylot Island, Canada

Hydrochemistry of ice stream beds—evaporitic or microbial effects?

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