Sliding velocity fluctuations and subglacial hydrology over the last two decades on Argentière glacier, Mont Blanc area
ABSTRACT The subglacial observatory beneath the Argentière glacier provides a rare opportunity to study the interactions between glacier sliding velocity and subglacial runoff. The sliding velocity has been monitored in this cavity almost continuously since 1997 and the resulting data indicate a dec...
Published in: | Journal of Glaciology |
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Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2016
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2016.35 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143016000356 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/jog.2016.35 2024-09-30T14:37:51+00:00 Sliding velocity fluctuations and subglacial hydrology over the last two decades on Argentière glacier, Mont Blanc area VINCENT, CHRISTIAN MOREAU, LUC 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2016.35 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143016000356 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Journal of Glaciology volume 62, issue 235, page 805-815 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 journal-article 2016 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2016.35 2024-09-04T04:04:24Z ABSTRACT The subglacial observatory beneath the Argentière glacier provides a rare opportunity to study the interactions between glacier sliding velocity and subglacial runoff. The sliding velocity has been monitored in this cavity almost continuously since 1997 and the resulting data indicate a decrease in annual sliding velocities over the last two decades. We found close relationships between annual surface velocity, sliding velocity and ice thickness. These relationships indicate that the ice-flow velocity changes do not depend on subglacial water runoff changes at the annual timescale. The seasonal magnitudes of sliding also show a decrease over the last two decades. At the seasonal timescale, sliding velocity increases before or simultaneously with the large runoff increase in May, indicating a distributed drainage system. Conversely, at the end of the melt season, sliding velocity continues to decrease after the runoff returns to low winter values. The simultaneous increases of runoff and sliding velocity occur mainly before the spring transition. Later, sliding velocity generally appears not to be related to water inputs coming from the surface, except for some large accelerations after midAugust that are always associated with periods of rapidly increasing water inputs to the subglacial drainage system. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology Cambridge University Press Mont Blanc ENVELOPE(69.468,69.468,-49.461,-49.461) Journal of Glaciology 62 235 805 815 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
ABSTRACT The subglacial observatory beneath the Argentière glacier provides a rare opportunity to study the interactions between glacier sliding velocity and subglacial runoff. The sliding velocity has been monitored in this cavity almost continuously since 1997 and the resulting data indicate a decrease in annual sliding velocities over the last two decades. We found close relationships between annual surface velocity, sliding velocity and ice thickness. These relationships indicate that the ice-flow velocity changes do not depend on subglacial water runoff changes at the annual timescale. The seasonal magnitudes of sliding also show a decrease over the last two decades. At the seasonal timescale, sliding velocity increases before or simultaneously with the large runoff increase in May, indicating a distributed drainage system. Conversely, at the end of the melt season, sliding velocity continues to decrease after the runoff returns to low winter values. The simultaneous increases of runoff and sliding velocity occur mainly before the spring transition. Later, sliding velocity generally appears not to be related to water inputs coming from the surface, except for some large accelerations after midAugust that are always associated with periods of rapidly increasing water inputs to the subglacial drainage system. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
VINCENT, CHRISTIAN MOREAU, LUC |
spellingShingle |
VINCENT, CHRISTIAN MOREAU, LUC Sliding velocity fluctuations and subglacial hydrology over the last two decades on Argentière glacier, Mont Blanc area |
author_facet |
VINCENT, CHRISTIAN MOREAU, LUC |
author_sort |
VINCENT, CHRISTIAN |
title |
Sliding velocity fluctuations and subglacial hydrology over the last two decades on Argentière glacier, Mont Blanc area |
title_short |
Sliding velocity fluctuations and subglacial hydrology over the last two decades on Argentière glacier, Mont Blanc area |
title_full |
Sliding velocity fluctuations and subglacial hydrology over the last two decades on Argentière glacier, Mont Blanc area |
title_fullStr |
Sliding velocity fluctuations and subglacial hydrology over the last two decades on Argentière glacier, Mont Blanc area |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sliding velocity fluctuations and subglacial hydrology over the last two decades on Argentière glacier, Mont Blanc area |
title_sort |
sliding velocity fluctuations and subglacial hydrology over the last two decades on argentière glacier, mont blanc area |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2016.35 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143016000356 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(69.468,69.468,-49.461,-49.461) |
geographic |
Mont Blanc |
geographic_facet |
Mont Blanc |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology volume 62, issue 235, page 805-815 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2016.35 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
62 |
container_issue |
235 |
container_start_page |
805 |
op_container_end_page |
815 |
_version_ |
1811640630787440640 |