Determining the extent of pressurized flow beneath Storglaciären, Sweden, using results of tracer experiments and measurements of input and output discharge

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Author: Kohler, Jack
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1995
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Storglaciären; Journal of Glaciology; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000016129; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000016129

Abstract Two experiments were conducted on the drainage system beneath the Lower part of the ablation zone of Storglaciären, a small valley glacier in northern Sweden. In the first experiment, over 70 tracer tests were performed in a cluster of moulins during a 1 month period, at sub-daily intervals. In the second experiment, input- and output-discharge signals were measured on the supraglacial melt stream emptying into a moulin and on the proglacial stream to which the moulin drains. The data from these two experiments are used in an idealized model of the subglacial drainage system to calculate the percentage of the system flowing as an open channel. Results from the tracer experiment suggest that the system is pressurized to within 60-340 m of the snout, while analysis of the discharge data indicates pressurized ronduits to within 0-415 m of the snout.