Widespread Moulin Formation During Supraglacial Lake Drainages in Greenland

• Main Authors: Andrews, Lauren C., Neumann, Thomas A., Hoffman, Matthew J., Johnson, Jesse, Perego, Mauro, Price, Stephen F., Catania, Ginny, Luethi, Martin
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Geophysics; Greenland; glacier; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20180000574

Moulins permit access of surface meltwater to the glacier bed, causing basal lubrication and ice speedup in the ablation zone of western Greenland during summer. Despite the substantial impact of moulins on ice dynamics, the conditions under which they form are poorly understood. We assimilate a time-series of ice surface velocity from a network of eleven Global Positioning System receivers into an ice sheet model to estimate ice sheet stresses during winter, spring, and summer in an approx. 30 x 10 km region. Surface-parallel von Mises stress increases slightly during spring speedup and early summer, sufficient to allow formation of 16% of moulins mapped in the study area. In contrast, 63% of moulins experience stresses over the tensile strength of ice during a short (hours) supraglacial lake drainage event. Lake drainages appear to control moulin density, which is itself a control on subglacial drainage efficiency and summer ice velocities.