Modeling of subglacial hydrological development following rapid supraglacial lake drainage.

ABSTRACT: The rapid drainage of supraglacial lakes injects substantial volumes of water to the bed of the Greenland ice sheet over short timescales. The effect of these water pulses on the development of basal hydrological systems is largely unknown. To address this, we develop a lake drainage model incorporating both (1) a subglacial radial flux element driven by elastic hydraulic jacking and (2) downstream drainage through a linked channelized and distributed system. Here we present the model and examine whether substantial, efficient subglacial channels can form during or following lake drainage events and their effect on the water pressure in the surrounding distributed system. We force the model with field data from a lake drainage site, 70 km from the terminus of Russell Glacier in West Greenl

SUBMITTER: Dow CF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4662019 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature