Controls on Water Storage and Drainage in Crevasses on the Greenland Ice Sheet ...
AbstractSurface crevasses on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) capture nearly half of the seasonal runoff, yet their role in transferring meltwater to the bed has received little attention relative to that of supraglacial lakes and moulins. Here, we present observations of crevasse ponding and investig...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.75175 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/327720 |
| Summary: | AbstractSurface crevasses on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) capture nearly half of the seasonal runoff, yet their role in transferring meltwater to the bed has received little attention relative to that of supraglacial lakes and moulins. Here, we present observations of crevasse ponding and investigate controls on their hydrological behavior at a fast‐moving, marine‐terminating sector of the GrIS. We map surface meltwater, crevasses, and surface‐parallel stress across a ∼2,700 km 2 region using satellite data and contemporaneous uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) surveys. From 2017 to 2019 an average of 26% of the crevassed area exhibited ponding at locations that remained persistent between years despite rapid advection. We find that the spatial distribution of ponded crevasses does not relate to previously proposed controls on the distribution of supraglacial lakes (elevation and topography) or crevasses (von Mises stress thresholds), suggesting the operation of some other physical control(s). Ponded crevasse ... |
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