Distribution of cold and temperate ice and water in glaciers at Nordenskiöld Land, Svalbard, according to data on ground-based radio-echo sounding

Abstract The distribution of cold and temperate ice and water in polythermal glaciers is an important characteristic in studying their thermal regime, hydrology, and response to climate change. Data analysis of ground-based radio-echo sounding of 16 glaciers in Nordenskiöld Land in Spitsbergen shows...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series
Main Authors: Macheret, Yuri, Glazovsky, Andrey, Lavrentiev, Ivan
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Walter de Gruyter GmbH 2019
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Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bgeo-2019-0016
https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/bgeo/17/1/article-p77.xml
https://www.sciendo.com/pdf/10.2478/bgeo-2019-0016
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Summary:Abstract The distribution of cold and temperate ice and water in polythermal glaciers is an important characteristic in studying their thermal regime, hydrology, and response to climate change. Data analysis of ground-based radio-echo sounding of 16 glaciers in Nordenskiöld Land in Spitsbergen shows that 5 of them are of cold type and 12 are of polythermal type. The mean thickness of cold and temperate ice in polythermal glaciers varies from 11±2 to 66±6 m and from 6±2 to 96±9 m, respectively, and their ratio varies from 0.30 to 5.31. The volume of temperate ice in polythermal glaciers varies from 0.0009 to 3.733 (±10%) km 3 . With water content of 2% in temperate ice in these glaciers they might contain in total up to ~93.5 × 106 m 3 of liquid water. Radar data suggest the greater water content or greater size of water inclusions in near-bottom temperate ice.