Subglacial lakes and hydrology across the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, West Antarctica
Subglacial water plays an important role in ice sheet dynamics and stability. Subglacial lakes are often located at the onset of ice streams and have been hypothesised to enhance ice flow downstream by lubricating the ice–bed interface. The most recent subglacial-lake inventory of Antarctica mapped...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:tc84227 2023-05-15T13:31:39+02:00 Subglacial lakes and hydrology across the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, West Antarctica Napoleoni, Felipe Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Ross, Neil Bentley, Michael J. Rivera, Andrés Smith, Andrew M. Siegert, Martin J. Paxman, Guy J. G. Gacitúa, Guisella Uribe, José A. Zamora, Rodrigo Brisbourne, Alex M. Vaughan, David G. 2020-12-10 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4507-2020 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/4507/2020/ eng eng doi:10.5194/tc-14-4507-2020 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/4507/2020/ eISSN: 1994-0424 Text 2020 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4507-2020 2020-12-14T17:22:14Z Subglacial water plays an important role in ice sheet dynamics and stability. Subglacial lakes are often located at the onset of ice streams and have been hypothesised to enhance ice flow downstream by lubricating the ice–bed interface. The most recent subglacial-lake inventory of Antarctica mapped nearly 400 lakes, of which ∼ 14 % are found in West Antarctica. Despite the potential importance of subglacial water for ice dynamics, there is a lack of detailed subglacial-water characterisation in West Antarctica. Using radio-echo sounding data, we analyse the ice–bed interface to detect subglacial lakes. We report 33 previously uncharted subglacial lakes and present a systematic analysis of their physical properties. This represents a ∼ 40 % increase in subglacial lakes in West Antarctica. Additionally, a new digital elevation model of basal topography of the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands was built and used to create a hydropotential model to simulate the subglacial hydrological network. This allows us to characterise basal hydrology, determine subglacial water catchments and assess their connectivity. We show that the simulated subglacial hydrological catchments of the Rutford Ice Stream, Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier do not correspond to their ice surface catchments. Text Antarc* Antarctica Ice Sheet Pine Island Pine Island Glacier Rutford Ice Stream Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands ENVELOPE(-94.000,-94.000,-80.500,-80.500) Pine Island Glacier ENVELOPE(-101.000,-101.000,-75.000,-75.000) Rutford ENVELOPE(-85.300,-85.300,-78.600,-78.600) Rutford Ice Stream ENVELOPE(-80.000,-80.000,-79.167,-79.167) Thwaites Glacier ENVELOPE(-106.750,-106.750,-75.500,-75.500) West Antarctica The Cryosphere 14 12 4507 4524 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
op_collection_id |
ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
Subglacial water plays an important role in ice sheet dynamics and stability. Subglacial lakes are often located at the onset of ice streams and have been hypothesised to enhance ice flow downstream by lubricating the ice–bed interface. The most recent subglacial-lake inventory of Antarctica mapped nearly 400 lakes, of which ∼ 14 % are found in West Antarctica. Despite the potential importance of subglacial water for ice dynamics, there is a lack of detailed subglacial-water characterisation in West Antarctica. Using radio-echo sounding data, we analyse the ice–bed interface to detect subglacial lakes. We report 33 previously uncharted subglacial lakes and present a systematic analysis of their physical properties. This represents a ∼ 40 % increase in subglacial lakes in West Antarctica. Additionally, a new digital elevation model of basal topography of the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands was built and used to create a hydropotential model to simulate the subglacial hydrological network. This allows us to characterise basal hydrology, determine subglacial water catchments and assess their connectivity. We show that the simulated subglacial hydrological catchments of the Rutford Ice Stream, Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier do not correspond to their ice surface catchments. |
format |
Text |
author |
Napoleoni, Felipe Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Ross, Neil Bentley, Michael J. Rivera, Andrés Smith, Andrew M. Siegert, Martin J. Paxman, Guy J. G. Gacitúa, Guisella Uribe, José A. Zamora, Rodrigo Brisbourne, Alex M. Vaughan, David G. |
spellingShingle |
Napoleoni, Felipe Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Ross, Neil Bentley, Michael J. Rivera, Andrés Smith, Andrew M. Siegert, Martin J. Paxman, Guy J. G. Gacitúa, Guisella Uribe, José A. Zamora, Rodrigo Brisbourne, Alex M. Vaughan, David G. Subglacial lakes and hydrology across the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, West Antarctica |
author_facet |
Napoleoni, Felipe Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Ross, Neil Bentley, Michael J. Rivera, Andrés Smith, Andrew M. Siegert, Martin J. Paxman, Guy J. G. Gacitúa, Guisella Uribe, José A. Zamora, Rodrigo Brisbourne, Alex M. Vaughan, David G. |
author_sort |
Napoleoni, Felipe |
title |
Subglacial lakes and hydrology across the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, West Antarctica |
title_short |
Subglacial lakes and hydrology across the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, West Antarctica |
title_full |
Subglacial lakes and hydrology across the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, West Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Subglacial lakes and hydrology across the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, West Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Subglacial lakes and hydrology across the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, West Antarctica |
title_sort |
subglacial lakes and hydrology across the ellsworth subglacial highlands, west antarctica |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4507-2020 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/4507/2020/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-94.000,-94.000,-80.500,-80.500) ENVELOPE(-101.000,-101.000,-75.000,-75.000) ENVELOPE(-85.300,-85.300,-78.600,-78.600) ENVELOPE(-80.000,-80.000,-79.167,-79.167) ENVELOPE(-106.750,-106.750,-75.500,-75.500) |
geographic |
Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands Pine Island Glacier Rutford Rutford Ice Stream Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands Pine Island Glacier Rutford Rutford Ice Stream Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Ice Sheet Pine Island Pine Island Glacier Rutford Ice Stream Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Ice Sheet Pine Island Pine Island Glacier Rutford Ice Stream Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica |
op_source |
eISSN: 1994-0424 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-14-4507-2020 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/4507/2020/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4507-2020 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
4507 |
op_container_end_page |
4524 |
_version_ |
1766019897003868160 |