Potential subglacial lake locations and meltwater drainage pathways beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets ...

• Main Authors: Livingstone, S. J., Clark, C. D., Woodward, J., Kingslake, Jonathan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Columbia University 2013
• Subjects: Subglacial lakes; Ice sheets; Geophysics; FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences; Hydrology; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Greenland; Antarc*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d83n2383; https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D83N2383

We use the Shreve hydraulic potential equation as a simplified approach to investigate potential subglacial lake locations and meltwater drainage pathways beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. We validate the method by demonstrating its ability to recall the locations of <60% of the known subglacial lakes beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This is despite uncertainty in the ice-sheet bed elevation and our simplified modelling approach. However, we predict many more lakes than are observed. Hence we suggest that thousands of subglacial lakes remain to be found. Applying our technique to the Greenland Ice Sheet, where very few subglacial lakes have so far been observed, recalls 1607 potential lake locations, covering 1.2% of the bed. Our results will therefore provide suitable targets for geophysical surveys aimed at identifying lakes beneath Greenland. We also apply the technique to modelled past ice-sheet configurations and find that during deglaciation both ice sheets likely had more subglacial ...