Bowling, J., Livingstone, S. orcid.org/0000-0002-7240-5037, Sole, A. et al. (1 more author) (2019) Distribution and dynamics of Greenland subglacial lakes. Nature Communications, 10. 2810. ISSN 2041-1723
Abstract
Few subglacial lakes have been identified beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) despite extensive documentation in Antarctica, where periodic release of water can impact ice flow. Here we present an ice-sheet-wide survey of Greenland subglacial lakes, identifying 54 candidates from airborne radio-echo sounding, and 2 lakes from ice-surface elevation changes. These range from 0.2–5.9 km in length, and are mostly distributed away from ice divides, beneath relatively slow-moving ice. Based on our results and previous observations, we suggest three zones of formation: stable lakes in northern and eastern regions above the Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) but away from the interior; hydrologically-active lakes near the ELA recharged by surface meltwater and; small, seasonally-active lakes below the ELA, which form over winter and drain during the melt season. These observations provide important constraints on the GrIS's basal thermal regime and help refine our understanding of the subglacial hydrological system.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2019. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Geography (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 19 Jun 2019 08:40 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jul 2019 11:00 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41467-019-10821-w |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:147032 |