A multi-dimensional analysis of pro-glacial landscape change at Sólheimajökull, Southern Iceland

• Published in: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
• Main Authors: Staines, KEH, Carrivick, JL, Tweed, FS, Evans, AJ, Russell, AJ, Jóhannesson, T, Roberts, M
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: John Wiley and Sons Ltd 2015
• Subjects: Marginal Lake; Sólheimajökull; glacier; Iceland
• Online Access: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/87567/; https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/87567/1/Staines%20et%20al%20%20ESPL%20Sept%202014.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.3662

Pro-glacial landscapes are some of the most active on Earth. Previous studies of pro-glacial landscape change have often been restricted to considering either sedimentological, geomorphological or topographic parameters in isolation and are often mono-dimensional. This study utilized field surveys and digital elevation model (DEM) analyses to quantify planform, elevation and volumetric pro-glacial landscape change at Sólheimajökull in southern Iceland for multiple time periods spanning from 1960 to 2010. As expected, the most intense geomorphological changes persistently occurred in the ice-proximal area. During 1960 to 1996 the pro-glacial river was relatively stable. However, after 2001 braiding intensity was higher, channel slope shallower and there was a shift from overall incision to aggradation. Attributing these pro-glacial river channel changes to the 1999 jökulhlaup is ambiguous because it coincided with a switch from a period of glacier advance to that of glacier retreat. Furthermore, glacier retreat (of ~40myr -1 ) coincided with ice-marginal lake development and these two factors have both altered the pro-glacial river channel head elevation. From 2001 to 2010 progressive increase in channel braiding and progressive downstream incision occurred; these together probably reflecting stream power due to increased glacier ablation and reduced sediment supply due to trapping of sediment by the developing ice-marginal lake. Overall, this study highlights rapid spatiotemporal pro-glacial landscape reactions to changes in glacial meltwater runoff regimes, glacier terminus position, sediment supply and episodic events such as jökuhlaups. Recognizing the interplay of these controlling factors on pro-glacial landscapes will be important for understanding the geological record and for landscape stability assessments.