Brief Communication: Sudden drainage of a subglacial lake beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet

We report on the appearance of a 2 km wide, 70 m deep circular depression located 50 km inland of the southwestern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet that provides the first direct evidence for concentrated, long-term storage, and sudden release, of meltwater at the bed. Drainage of the lake may have...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Cryosphere
Main Authors: I. M. Howat, C. Porter, M. J. Noh, B. E. Smith, S. Jeong
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2015
Subjects:
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Geology
QE1-996.5
Greenland
Lake May
Ice Sheet
The Cryosphere
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-103-2015
https://doaj.org/article/4a59b79e1711402ba84881969b4cf521
Description
Summary:We report on the appearance of a 2 km wide, 70 m deep circular depression located 50 km inland of the southwestern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet that provides the first direct evidence for concentrated, long-term storage, and sudden release, of meltwater at the bed. Drainage of the lake may have been triggered by the recent increase in meltwater runoff. The abundance of such lakes and their potential importance to the ice sheet's hydrologic system and flow regime remain unknown.

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