Subglacial Water Flow Over an Antarctic Palaeo-Ice Stream Bed ...

• Main Authors: Hogan, KA, Arnold, NS, Larter, RD, Kirkham, JD, Noormets, R, Ó Cofaigh, C, Golledge, NR, Dowdeswell, JA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2022
• Subjects: palaeo-ice stream; subglacial hydrology; bedrock channels; Antarctica; subglacial lakes; marine geophysics; Antarctic; Marguerite; Pacific; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.81607; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/334195

AbstractThe subglacial hydrological system exerts a critical control on the dynamic behavior of the overlying ice because its configuration affects the degree of basal lubrication between the ice and the bed. Yet, this component of the glaciological system is notoriously hard to access and observe, particularly over timescales longer than the satellite era. In Antarctica, abundant evidence for past subglacial water flow over former ice‐sheet beds exists around the peripheries of the ice sheet including networks of huge channels carved into bedrock (now submarine) on the Pacific margin of West Antarctica. Here, we combine detailed bathymetric investigations of a channel system in Marguerite Trough, a major palaeo‐ice stream bed, with numerical hydrological modeling to explore subglacial water accumulation, routing and potential for erosion over decadal‐centennial timescales. Detailed channel morphologies from remotely operated vehicle surveys indicate multiple stages of localized incision, and the occurrence ...