Englacial Warming Indicates Deep Crevassing in Bowdoin Glacier, Greenland
All around the margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet, marine-terminating glaciers have recently thinned and accelerated. The reduced basal friction has yielded increased flow velocity, while the rate of longitudinal stretching has been limited by ice viscosity, which itself critically depends on temper...
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ftethz:oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/409269 2023-06-11T04:11:53+02:00 Englacial Warming Indicates Deep Crevassing in Bowdoin Glacier, Greenland Seguinot, Julien Funk, Martin Bauder, Andreas Wyder, Thomas Senn, Cornelius Sugiyama, Shin 2020-03-17 application/application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/409269 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000409269 en eng Frontiers Media info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.3389/feart.2020.00065 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000525715400001 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/SNF/Projektförderung in Mathematik, Natur- und Ingenieurwissenschaften (Abteilung II)/153179 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/SNF/Projekte MINT/169558 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/409269 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000409269 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Frontiers in Earth Science, 8 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2020 ftethz https://doi.org/20.500.11850/40926910.3929/ethz-b-00040926910.3389/feart.2020.00065 2023-05-28T23:48:15Z All around the margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet, marine-terminating glaciers have recently thinned and accelerated. The reduced basal friction has yielded increased flow velocity, while the rate of longitudinal stretching has been limited by ice viscosity, which itself critically depends on temperature. However, ice temperature has rarely been measured on such fast-flowing and heavily crevassed glaciers. Here, we present a 3-year record of englacial temperatures obtained 2 (in 2014) to 1 km (in 2017) from the calving front of Bowdoin Glacier (Kangerluarsuup Sermia), a tidewater glacier in northwestern Greenland. Two boreholes separated by 165 (2014) to 197 m (2017) show significant temperature differences averaging 2.07°C on their entire depth. Englacial warming of up to 0.39°C a−1, an order of magnitude above the theoretical rate of heat diffusion and viscous dissipation, indicates a deep and local heat source within the tidewater glacier. We interpret the heat source as latent heat from meltwater refreezing in crevasses reaching to, or near to, the bed of the glacier, whose localization may be controlled by preferential meltwater infiltration in topographic dips between ogives. ISSN:2296-6463 Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Tidewater ETH Zürich Research Collection Bowdoin ENVELOPE(-69.317,-69.317,77.683,77.683) Greenland |
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Open Polar |
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ETH Zürich Research Collection |
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ftethz |
language |
English |
description |
All around the margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet, marine-terminating glaciers have recently thinned and accelerated. The reduced basal friction has yielded increased flow velocity, while the rate of longitudinal stretching has been limited by ice viscosity, which itself critically depends on temperature. However, ice temperature has rarely been measured on such fast-flowing and heavily crevassed glaciers. Here, we present a 3-year record of englacial temperatures obtained 2 (in 2014) to 1 km (in 2017) from the calving front of Bowdoin Glacier (Kangerluarsuup Sermia), a tidewater glacier in northwestern Greenland. Two boreholes separated by 165 (2014) to 197 m (2017) show significant temperature differences averaging 2.07°C on their entire depth. Englacial warming of up to 0.39°C a−1, an order of magnitude above the theoretical rate of heat diffusion and viscous dissipation, indicates a deep and local heat source within the tidewater glacier. We interpret the heat source as latent heat from meltwater refreezing in crevasses reaching to, or near to, the bed of the glacier, whose localization may be controlled by preferential meltwater infiltration in topographic dips between ogives. ISSN:2296-6463 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Seguinot, Julien Funk, Martin Bauder, Andreas Wyder, Thomas Senn, Cornelius Sugiyama, Shin |
spellingShingle |
Seguinot, Julien Funk, Martin Bauder, Andreas Wyder, Thomas Senn, Cornelius Sugiyama, Shin Englacial Warming Indicates Deep Crevassing in Bowdoin Glacier, Greenland |
author_facet |
Seguinot, Julien Funk, Martin Bauder, Andreas Wyder, Thomas Senn, Cornelius Sugiyama, Shin |
author_sort |
Seguinot, Julien |
title |
Englacial Warming Indicates Deep Crevassing in Bowdoin Glacier, Greenland |
title_short |
Englacial Warming Indicates Deep Crevassing in Bowdoin Glacier, Greenland |
title_full |
Englacial Warming Indicates Deep Crevassing in Bowdoin Glacier, Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Englacial Warming Indicates Deep Crevassing in Bowdoin Glacier, Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Englacial Warming Indicates Deep Crevassing in Bowdoin Glacier, Greenland |
title_sort |
englacial warming indicates deep crevassing in bowdoin glacier, greenland |
publisher |
Frontiers Media |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/409269 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000409269 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-69.317,-69.317,77.683,77.683) |
geographic |
Bowdoin Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Bowdoin Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Tidewater |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Tidewater |
op_source |
Frontiers in Earth Science, 8 |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.3389/feart.2020.00065 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000525715400001 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/SNF/Projektförderung in Mathematik, Natur- und Ingenieurwissenschaften (Abteilung II)/153179 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/SNF/Projekte MINT/169558 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/409269 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000409269 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11850/40926910.3929/ethz-b-00040926910.3389/feart.2020.00065 |
_version_ |
1768387316231962624 |