Basal hydraulic system of a West Antarctic ice stream: constraints from borehole observations

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Engelhardt, Hermann, Kamb, Barclay
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1997
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica; Ice Stream B; Journal of Glaciology; West Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000003166; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000003166

Abstract Pressure and tracer measurements in boreholes drilled to the bottom of Ice Stream B, West Antarctica, are used to obtain information about the basal water conduit system in which high water pressures are developed.These high pressures presumably make possible the rapid movement of the ice stream. Pressure in the system is indicated by the borehole water level once connection to the conduit system is made. On initial connection, here also called “breakthrough” to the basal water system, the water level drops in a few minutes to an initial depth in the range 96–117 m below the surface. These water levels are near but mostly somewhat deeper than the floation level of about 100 m depth (water level at which basal water pressure and ice overburden pressure are equal), which is calculated from depth-density profiles and is measured in one borehole. The conduit system can be modelled as a continuous or somewhat discontinuous gap between ice and bed; the thickness of the gap δ has to be about 2 mm to account for the water-level drop on breakthrough, and about 4 mm to fit the results of a salt-tracer experiment indicating downstream transport at a speed of 7.5 mm s −1 . The above gap-conduit model is, however, ruled out by the way a pressure pulse injected into the basal water system at breakthrough propagates outward from the injection hole, and also by the large hole-to-hole variation in measured basal pressure, which if present in a gap-conduit system with δ = 2 or 4 mm would result in unacceptably large local water fluxes. An alternative model that avoids these objections, called the “gap opening” model, involves opening a gap as injection proceeds: starting with a thin film, the injection of water under pressure lifts the ice mass around the borehole, creating a gap 3 or 4mm wide at the ice/bed interface. Evaluated quantitatively, the gap-opening model accounts for the volume of water that the basal water system accepts on breakthrough, which obviates the gap-conduit model. In order to transport basal ...