Subglacial lake drainage detected beneath the Greenland ice sheet.
The contribution of the Greenland ice sheet to sea-level rise has accelerated in recent decades. Subglacial lake drainage events can induce an ice sheet dynamic response--a process that has been observed in Antarctica, but not yet in Greenland, where the presence of subglacial lakes has only recentl...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt4v52x0xv 2024-09-15T17:47:35+00:00 Subglacial lake drainage detected beneath the Greenland ice sheet. Palmer, Steven McMillan, Malcolm Morlighem, Mathieu 8408 2015-10-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4v52x0xv https://escholarship.org/content/qt4v52x0xv/qt4v52x0xv.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9408 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt4v52x0xv https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4v52x0xv https://escholarship.org/content/qt4v52x0xv/qt4v52x0xv.pdf doi:10.1038/ncomms9408 public Nature communications, vol 6, iss 1 Climate Action article 2015 ftcdlib https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9408 2024-06-28T06:28:21Z The contribution of the Greenland ice sheet to sea-level rise has accelerated in recent decades. Subglacial lake drainage events can induce an ice sheet dynamic response--a process that has been observed in Antarctica, but not yet in Greenland, where the presence of subglacial lakes has only recently been discovered. Here we investigate the water flow paths from a subglacial lake, which drained beneath the Greenland ice sheet in 2011. Our observations suggest that the lake was fed by surface meltwater flowing down a nearby moulin, and that the draining water reached the ice margin via a subglacial tunnel. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar-derived measurements of ice surface motion acquired in 1995 suggest that a similar event may have occurred 16 years earlier, and we propose that, as the climate warms, increasing volumes of surface meltwater routed to the bed will cause such events to become more common in the future. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Greenland Ice Sheet University of California: eScholarship Nature Communications 6 1 |
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University of California: eScholarship |
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topic |
Climate Action |
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Climate Action Palmer, Steven McMillan, Malcolm Morlighem, Mathieu Subglacial lake drainage detected beneath the Greenland ice sheet. |
topic_facet |
Climate Action |
description |
The contribution of the Greenland ice sheet to sea-level rise has accelerated in recent decades. Subglacial lake drainage events can induce an ice sheet dynamic response--a process that has been observed in Antarctica, but not yet in Greenland, where the presence of subglacial lakes has only recently been discovered. Here we investigate the water flow paths from a subglacial lake, which drained beneath the Greenland ice sheet in 2011. Our observations suggest that the lake was fed by surface meltwater flowing down a nearby moulin, and that the draining water reached the ice margin via a subglacial tunnel. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar-derived measurements of ice surface motion acquired in 1995 suggest that a similar event may have occurred 16 years earlier, and we propose that, as the climate warms, increasing volumes of surface meltwater routed to the bed will cause such events to become more common in the future. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Palmer, Steven McMillan, Malcolm Morlighem, Mathieu |
author_facet |
Palmer, Steven McMillan, Malcolm Morlighem, Mathieu |
author_sort |
Palmer, Steven |
title |
Subglacial lake drainage detected beneath the Greenland ice sheet. |
title_short |
Subglacial lake drainage detected beneath the Greenland ice sheet. |
title_full |
Subglacial lake drainage detected beneath the Greenland ice sheet. |
title_fullStr |
Subglacial lake drainage detected beneath the Greenland ice sheet. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Subglacial lake drainage detected beneath the Greenland ice sheet. |
title_sort |
subglacial lake drainage detected beneath the greenland ice sheet. |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4v52x0xv https://escholarship.org/content/qt4v52x0xv/qt4v52x0xv.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9408 |
op_coverage |
8408 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Nature communications, vol 6, iss 1 |
op_relation |
qt4v52x0xv https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4v52x0xv https://escholarship.org/content/qt4v52x0xv/qt4v52x0xv.pdf doi:10.1038/ncomms9408 |
op_rights |
public |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9408 |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1810497003315003392 |