Widespread moulin formation during supraglacial lake drainages in Greenland

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 tim...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hoffman, Matthew J, Perego, Mauro, Andrews, Lauren C, Price, Stephen F, Neumann, Thomas A, Johnson, Jesse V, Catania, Ginny, Lüthi, Martin P
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/162834/
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/162834/1/2018_Hoffman%26al2018.pdf
https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-162834
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017gl075659
Description
Summary: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 a ∼30 × 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 mourns 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.