Hydrological control of stream water chemistry in a glacial catchment (Damma Glacier, Switzerland)

Hindshaw, Ruth S.; Tipper, Edward T.; Reynolds, B. C.; Lemarchand, Emmanuel; Wiederhold, Jan G.; Magnusson, Jan; Bernasconi, Stefano M.; Kretzschmar, Ruben; Bourdon, Bernard

doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2011.04.012

Cited by 105 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Of all analyzed variables, cation yield is most highly correlated with the proportion of glacial cover and the sampling distance from the glacial snout (SI Appendix, Table S3). Subglacial weathering fluxes also depend on hydrology, for example, differing for warm-vs. coldbased ice (35,36) and along different flowpaths (37), and these differences may explain some of the variability within the dataset.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glacial weathering, sulfide oxidation, and global carbon cycle feedbacks

Torres

Moosdorf

Hartmann

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

159

171

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Connections between glaciation, chemical weathering, and the global carbon cycle could steer the evolution of global climate over geologic time, but even the directionality of feedbacks in this system remain to be resolved. Here, we assemble a compilation of hydrochemical data from glacierized catchments, use this data to evaluate the dominant chemical reactions associated with glacial weathering, and explore the implications for long-term geochemical cycles. Weathering yields from catchments in our compilation are higher than the global average, which results, in part, from higher runoff in glaciated catchments. Our analysis supports the theory that glacial weathering is characterized predominantly by weathering of trace sulfide and carbonate minerals. To evaluate the effects of glacial weathering on atmospheric pCO 2 , we use a solute mixing model to predict the ratio of alkalinity to dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) generated by weathering reactions. Compared with nonglacial weathering, glacial weathering is more likely to yield alkalinity/DIC ratios less than 1, suggesting that enhanced sulfide oxidation as a result of glaciation may act as a source of CO 2 to the atmosphere. Back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that oxidative fluxes could change ocean-atmosphere CO 2 equilibrium by 25 ppm or more over 10 ky. Over longer timescales, CO 2 release could act as a negative feedback, limiting progress of glaciation, dependent on lithology and the concentration of atmospheric O 2 . Future work on glaciation-weathering-carbon cycle feedbacks should consider weathering of trace sulfide minerals in addition to silicate minerals.weathering | carbon cycle | glaciation | oxidation | sulfide E pisodes of glaciation represent some of the most dramatic changes in the history of Earth's climate. Basic questions remain unanswered about why the planet has occasionally but not always supported glaciers, about why some glaciations have been more intense than others, and about how glaciers have shaped Earth's landscapes, chemical cycles, and climate. Before the Phanerozoic (i.e., before ∼540 Mya), several glaciations are thought to have approached complete or near-complete planetary ice cover ("Snowball Earth" events; ref. 1). In contrast, more recent glaciations, including the Quaternary glaciations of the last million years, have been characterized by oscillating climate with ice extent limited to high latitudes even during glacial maxima (2). The formation of ice cover has long been known to fundamentally alter Earth's environment, changing albedo (3), influencing atmospheric and ocean circulation (4), and reshaping landscapes (5). These diverse effects may contribute to planetary-scale feedbacks that influence the transition to and the evolution of glaciation.Chemical weathering influences the composition of the atmosphere by releasing ionic species from minerals that alter the alkalinity and redox condition of the ocean-atmosphere system. Weathering of silicate minerals produces alkalinity, removing carbon from the at...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glacial weathering, sulfide oxidation, and global carbon cycle feedbacks

Torres

Moosdorf

Hartmann

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

159

171

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“…These assumptions have yet to be verified, as the mineral surface age distribution under glaciers remains unknown, and the difference in weathering rates between fresh and weathered surfaces is not well established in the literature. It has also been hypothesized that the relative silica fluxes may be low in glacierized basins, due to a decrease in the weathering rates of primary silicates at low temperatures (White and others, 1999b;Anderson, 2005), but the observed high cation to Si ratios in proglacial waters cannot be explained by this temperature effect alone (Hindshaw and others, 2011). Dissolution is not the only mechanism that is cited for controlling the fraction of silica in glacier meltwaters.…”

Section: Glacier Hydrochemistry In the Framework Of Dissolution Reactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The interlayer depletion of K + is often accompanied by the addition of Mg 2+ as biotite weathers to chlorite (Eggleton, 1986), and this could also help explain the depletion of Mg 2+ in the borehole water. The importance of biotite dissolution as a source of K + has been shown using Sr isotopes (Anderson and others, 1997; Sharp and others, 2002;Hagedorn and Hasholt, 2004;Hindshaw and others, 2011).…”

Section: The Influence Of Secondary Silicate Precipitation On Water Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, mixing may not be a simple binary process between channelized and distributed waters (Tranter and others, 2002b), and conductivity variations in proglacial waters do not reflect conservative mixing, due to post-mixing reactions (Tranter and others, 1993; Sharp and others, 1995b;Brown and others, 1996). These complexities have led to the use of chemical markers, such as strontium isotopes, to calculate mixing (Hindshaw and others, 2011). Based on the above, and observations of hydrochemistry at South Glacier, we implement a threestage conceptual model of the reaction path:…”

Section: Conceptual Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Clay mineral precipitation and low silica in glacier meltwaters explored through reaction-path modelling

et al. 2015

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ABSTRACT. The subglacial chemical weathering environment is largely controlled by low temperatures and the presence of freshly comminuted minerals with a high surface area. These characteristics are believed to promote dissolution processes that give rise to low silica and high Ca 2+ fluxes emanating from glacierized basins. We test an alternative hypothesis, that mineral precipitation reactions in the subglacial environment play an equally important role in controlling the water chemistry in glacierized basins. We analyze borehole and proglacial water chemistry from a subarctic polythermal glacier, complemented by mineral XRD analysis of suspended sediment, till and bedrock samples. In conjunction with a thermodynamic analysis of the water and mineral chemistry, we use reactionpath modelling to study the chemical enrichment of water through the glacier system. We find that the high pH of the subglacial environment is conducive to secondary mineral precipitation, and that it is not possible to balance the water chemistry using dissolution reactions alone. We show that low silica can be explained by standard weathering reactions without having to invoke mineral-leaching reactions. Our results suggest that subglacial weathering intensity may be significantly underestimated if the production of secondary minerals is not considered.

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“…Third, there is growing evidence that water chemical signatures may not be so reliable in detecting ice melt influence on streamflow as they can be modified by many factors such as climate, bedrock substrates and altitude (Nelson et al, 2011;Zhu et al, 2012). In particular, when glacial meltwater infiltration occurs, water chemistry is likely to be considerably modified during the underground flow routing, depending on the residence time underground, the distance of the underground flow routing and the bedrock substrates (Hindshaw et al, 2011;Nelson et al, 2011). Finally, incorporating the high spatiotemporal variability of the different water sources contributions in glacierized catchments requires extensive measurement campaigns (e.g., glacier area measurement, water sampling, and stream habitat measurements), the building of water monitoring structures (e.g., hydrological and climatological stations) or costly analyses (e.g., water chemistry over long time periods).…”

Section: S Cauvy-fraunié Et Al: Technical Note: Glacial Influence Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Technical Note: Glacial influence in tropical mountain hydrosystems evidenced by the diurnal cycle in water levels

Cauvy‐Fraunié

Condom

Rabatel

et al. 2013

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Worldwide, the rapid shrinking of glaciers in response to ongoing climate change is modifying the glacial meltwater contribution to hydrosystems in glacierized catchments. Determining the influence of glacial runoff to streams is therefore of critical importance to evaluate potential impact of glacier retreat on water quality and aquatic biota. This task has challenged both glacier hydrologists and ecologists over the last 20 yr due to both structural and functional complexity of the glacier-stream system interface. Here we propose quantifying the diurnal cycle amplitude of the streamflow to determine the glacial influence in glacierized catchments. We performed water-level measurements using water pressure loggers over 10 months at 30 min time steps in 15 stream sites in 2 glacier-fed catchments in the Ecuadorian Andes (> 4000 m a.s.l.) where no perennial snow cover is observed outside the glaciers. For each stream site, we performed wavelet analyses on water-level time series, determined the scale-averaged wavelet power spectrum at 24 h scale and defined three metrics, namely the power, frequency and temporal clustering of the diurnal flow variation. The three metrics were then compared to the percentage of the glacier cover in the catchments, a metric of glacial influence widely used in the literature. As expected, we found that the diurnal variation power of glacier-fed streams decreased downstream with the addition of non-glacial tributaries. We also found that the diurnal variation power and the percentage of the glacier cover in the catchment were significantly positively correlated. Furthermore, we found that our method permits the detection of glacial signal in supposedly non-glacial sites, thereby revealing glacial meltwater resurgence. While we specifically focused on the tropical Andes in this paper, our approach to determine glacial influence may have potential applications in temperate and arctic glacierized catchments. The measure of diurnal water amplitude therefore appears as a powerful and cost-effective tool to understand the hydrological links between glaciers and hydrosystems better and assess the consequences of rapid glacier shrinking.

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Hydrological control of stream water chemistry in a glacial catchment (Damma Glacier, Switzerland)

Cited by 105 publications

References 81 publications

Glacial weathering, sulfide oxidation, and global carbon cycle feedbacks

Glacial weathering, sulfide oxidation, and global carbon cycle feedbacks

Clay mineral precipitation and low silica in glacier meltwaters explored through reaction-path modelling

Technical Note: Glacial influence in tropical mountain hydrosystems evidenced by the diurnal cycle in water levels

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