Moulin density impacts the effect of subglacial hydrology on ice dynamics

Abstract

The current increase in temperature over Greenland and other glaciated regions allows for more surface melt, which poses the question of the impact of this extra amount of meltwater on ice dynamics. As subglacial hydrology models evolve they are now easier to apply to realistic scenarios to quantify the effect of an increase in melt on the dynamics of glaciers. However, a number of processes linking the surface melt to the water pressure at the base of glaciers are still overlooked in models due to a lack of knowledge or an excess of complexity. Here, we apply a subglacial hydrology model coupled to an ice dynamics model to a synthetic geometry to investigate the impact of moulins distribution on the dynamics of the glacier. Our results show that a sparser distribution of moulins leads to the faster development of the efficient drainage system and greatly slows down the glacier.