Repeated subglacial jökulhlaups in northeastern Greenland revealed by CryoSat
Surface height changes above three previously undetected subglacial lakes in northeastern Greenland are documented using CryoSat, DEMs and ICESat-2. Between 7 February and 6 March 2012, the central ice region (22.6 km2) above the largest lake dropped by ~37 m followed by a further drop of 12 m in th...
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Cambridge University Press
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Glaciology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143024000327/type/journal_article |
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| author | Laurence Gray David Burgess Luke Copland Christine Dow Xavier Fettweis David Fisher Will Kochtitzky Wesley van Wychen James Zheng |
| author_facet | Laurence Gray David Burgess Luke Copland Christine Dow Xavier Fettweis David Fisher Will Kochtitzky Wesley van Wychen James Zheng |
| author_sort | Laurence Gray |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Surface height changes above three previously undetected subglacial lakes in northeastern Greenland are documented using CryoSat, DEMs and ICESat-2. Between 7 February and 6 March 2012, the central ice region (22.6 km2) above the largest lake dropped by ~37 m followed by a further drop of 12 m in the following 29 days. This implies a subglacial water outflow, or jökulhlaup, of at least 1 km3 at rates of hundreds of cubic meters per second. A comparable outflow occurred again between 23 July and 15 September 2019, with smaller outflows in the fall of 2014 and 2016. In contrast, a second smaller subglacial lake at a higher elevation had two subglacial outbursts of ~0.3 km3 in 2012 and 2019 but the lake filling was gradual and not strongly seasonal or episodic. Water remained in both lakes after the outflows but this may not be the case for the third smallest and lowest subglacial lake. While there appears to be some hydrological link between the three lakes, the flux of water moving under the ice in this area appears to be larger than would be expected from local summer melt. However, the source of the excess water remains uncertain. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d1bec87adbbc44fa8eef2ec7ef3b6cf1 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Glaciology |
| spelling | doaj-art-d1bec87adbbc44fa8eef2ec7ef3b6cf12025-01-16T21:52:05ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Glaciology0022-14301727-56522024-01-017010.1017/jog.2024.32Repeated subglacial jökulhlaups in northeastern Greenland revealed by CryoSatLaurence Gray0https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9559-2697David Burgess1Luke Copland2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5374-2145Christine Dow3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1346-2258Xavier Fettweis4David Fisher5Will Kochtitzky6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9487-1509Wesley van Wychen7James Zheng8Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, CanadaGeological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, CanadaDepartment of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, CanadaDepartment of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, CanadaDepartment de Geography, University of Liège, Liège, BelgiumDepartment of Earth Science, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, CanadaSchool of Marine and Environmental Programs, University of New England, Biddeford, Maine, USADepartment of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, CanadaGeological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, CanadaSurface height changes above three previously undetected subglacial lakes in northeastern Greenland are documented using CryoSat, DEMs and ICESat-2. Between 7 February and 6 March 2012, the central ice region (22.6 km2) above the largest lake dropped by ~37 m followed by a further drop of 12 m in the following 29 days. This implies a subglacial water outflow, or jökulhlaup, of at least 1 km3 at rates of hundreds of cubic meters per second. A comparable outflow occurred again between 23 July and 15 September 2019, with smaller outflows in the fall of 2014 and 2016. In contrast, a second smaller subglacial lake at a higher elevation had two subglacial outbursts of ~0.3 km3 in 2012 and 2019 but the lake filling was gradual and not strongly seasonal or episodic. Water remained in both lakes after the outflows but this may not be the case for the third smallest and lowest subglacial lake. While there appears to be some hydrological link between the three lakes, the flux of water moving under the ice in this area appears to be larger than would be expected from local summer melt. However, the source of the excess water remains uncertain.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143024000327/type/journal_articleglacier hydrologyjökulhlaups (GLOFs)remote sensingsubglacial lakes |
| spellingShingle | Laurence Gray David Burgess Luke Copland Christine Dow Xavier Fettweis David Fisher Will Kochtitzky Wesley van Wychen James Zheng Repeated subglacial jökulhlaups in northeastern Greenland revealed by CryoSat Journal of Glaciology glacier hydrology jökulhlaups (GLOFs) remote sensing subglacial lakes |
| title | Repeated subglacial jökulhlaups in northeastern Greenland revealed by CryoSat |
| title_full | Repeated subglacial jökulhlaups in northeastern Greenland revealed by CryoSat |
| title_fullStr | Repeated subglacial jökulhlaups in northeastern Greenland revealed by CryoSat |
| title_full_unstemmed | Repeated subglacial jökulhlaups in northeastern Greenland revealed by CryoSat |
| title_short | Repeated subglacial jökulhlaups in northeastern Greenland revealed by CryoSat |
| title_sort | repeated subglacial jokulhlaups in northeastern greenland revealed by cryosat |
| topic | glacier hydrology jökulhlaups (GLOFs) remote sensing subglacial lakes |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143024000327/type/journal_article |
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