Subglacial floods beneath ice sheets

Subglacial floods (jökulhlaups) are well documented as occurring beneath present day glaciers and ice caps. In addition, it is known that massive floods have occurred from ice-dammed lakes proximal to the Laurentide ice sheet during the last ice age, and it has been suggested that at least one such...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
Main Authors: Evatt, G. W., Fowler, A. C., Clark, C. D., Hulton, N. R J
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2006
Subjects:
Dansgaard-Oeschger events
Ice sheets
Jökulhlaups
Sub-Antarctic lakes
Subglacial hydrology
Antarctic
Antarc*
Ice Sheet
Online Access:https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/publications/93fc5bc4-c5ac-4b10-8057-f085e72590de
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2006.1798
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Summary:Subglacial floods (jökulhlaups) are well documented as occurring beneath present day glaciers and ice caps. In addition, it is known that massive floods have occurred from ice-dammed lakes proximal to the Laurentide ice sheet during the last ice age, and it has been suggested that at least one such flood below the waning ice sheet was responsible for a dramatic cooling event some 8000 years ago. We propose that drainage of lakes from beneath ice sheets will generally occur in a time-periodic fashion, and that such floods can be of severe magnitude. Such hydraulic eruptions are likely to have caused severe climatic disturbances in the past, and may well do so in the future. © 2006 The Royal Society.

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