| Summary: | Subglacial hydrology directly impacts glacier motion, but few studies have investigated the connections between ice speed and water input on regional scales. Here, we analyze the correlation of glacier surface speed and runoff for 77 glaciers ≥3 km2 (~3070 km2) on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, within and between seasons from 2015-2019. Most correlations between monthly/seasonal mean ice speed and cumulative runoff in preceding months/multi-month periods are significant (p<0.05), while correlations for the same months or seasons are generally insignificant or weak indicating seasonally delayed responses of ice speed to runoff. In almost all cases lower-than-average monthly/seasonal ice speeds are associated with higher-than-average runoff in preceding months or multi-month periods. Overall, our results show that runoff can influence ice speed with considerable (multi-month) delays.
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