Search

Measurements of ice temperature provide crucial constraints on ice viscosity and the thermodynamic processes occurring within a glacier. However, such measurements are presently limited by a small number of relatively coarse-spatial-resolution borehole records, especially for ice sheets. Here, we advance our understanding of glacier thermodynamics with an exceptionally high-vertical-resolution (~0.65 m), distributed-fiber-optic temperature-sensing profile from a 1043-m borehole drilled to the base of Sermeq Kujalleq (Store Glacier), Greenland. We report substantial but isolated strain heating within interglacial-phase ice at 208 to 242 m depth together with strongly heterogeneous ice deformation in glacial-phase ice below 889 m. We also observe a high-strain interface between glacial- and interglacial-phase ice and a 73-m-thick temperate basal layer, interpreted as locally formed and important for the glacier's fast motion. These findings demonstrate notable spatial heterogeneity, both vertically and at the catchment scale, in the conditions facilitating the fast motion of marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland.

Marine-terminating outlet glaciers of the Greenland ice sheet make significant contributions to global sea level rise, yet the conditions that facilitate their fast flow remain poorly constrained owing to a paucity of data. We drilled and instrumented seven boreholes on Store Glacier, Greenland, to monitor subglacial water pressure, temperature, electrical conductivity and turbidity along with englacial ice temperature and deformation. These observations were supplemented by surface velocity and meteorological measurements to gain insight into the conditions and mechanisms of fast glacier flow. Located 30 km from the calving front, each borehole drained rapidly on attaining 600m depth indicating a direct connection with an active subglacial hydrological system. Persistently high subglacial water pressures indicate low effective pressure (180 - 280 kPa), with small amplitude variations correlated with notable peaks in surface velocity driven by the diurnal melt cycle and longer periods of melt and rainfall. The englacial deformation profile determined from borehole tilt measurements indicates that 63-71% of total ice motion occurred at the bed, with the remaining 29-37% predominantly attributed to enhanced deformation in the lowermost 50-100 m of the ice column. We interpret this lowermost 100m to be formed of warmer, pre-Holocene ice overlying a thin (0-8m) layer of temperate basal ice. Our observations are consistent with a spatially-extensive and persistently-inefficient subglacial drainage system that we hypothesize comprises drainage both at the ice-sediment interface and through subglacial sediments. This configuration has similarities to that interpreted beneath dynamically-analogous Antarctic ice streams, Alaskan tidewater glaciers, and glaciers in surge., This research was funded by UK National Environment Research Council grants NE/K006126 and NE/K005871/1 and an Aberystwyth University Capital Equipment grant to B. H. A. H. gratefully acknowledges support from the BBC's Operation Iceberg program for the deployment of the GPS reference station and a Professorial Fellowship from the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate, funded by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence (grant 223259). The authors thank the crew of SV Gambo for logistical support, Ann Andreasen and the Uummannaq Polar Institute for hospitality, technicians Barry Thomas and Dave Kelly for assembly of the borehole sensors, Joe Todd for producing a bed elevation model from mass conservation that proved useful in selecting the drill site, and Leo Nathan for assistance in the field. NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data were provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/. The data sets presented in this paper are available for download from https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5745294.

While it has been shown repeatedly that ocean conditions exhibit an important control on the behaviour of grounded tidewater glaciers, modelling studies have focused largely on the effects of basal and surface melting. Here, a finite-element model of stresses near the front of a tidewater glacier is used to investigate the effects of frontal melting on calving, independently of the calving criterion used. Applications of the stress model to idealized scenarios reveal that undercutting of the ice front due to frontal melting can drive calving at up to ten times the mean melt rate. Factors which cause increased frontal melt-driven calving include a strong thermal gradient in the ice, and a concentration of frontal melt at the base of the glacier. These properties are typical of both Arctic and Antarctic tidewater glaciers. The finding that frontal melt near the base is a strong driver of calving leads to the conclusion that water temperatures near the bed of the glacier are critically important to the glacier front, and thus the flow of the glacier. These conclusions are robust against changes in the basal boundary condition and the choice of calving criterion, as well as variations in the glacier size or level of crevassing.

In the Amundsen sector of West Antarctica, the flow of glaciers accelerates when intrusion of warm ocean water onto the continental shelf induces strong melting beneath ice shelves and thinning near the glacier’s grounding lines. Projecting the future of these glaciers is, however, hindered by a poor understanding of the dynamical processes that may exacerbate, or on the contrary modulate, the inland ice sheet response. This study seeks to investigate processes occurring at the base of Pine Island Glacier through numerical inversions of surface velocities observed in 1996 and 2014, a period of time during which the glacier accelerated significantly. The outputs show that substantial changes took place in the basal environment, which we interpreted with models of undrained subglacial till and hydrological routing. The annual basal melt production increased by 25% on average. Basal drag weakened by 15% over nearly two thirds of the region of accelerated flow, largely due to the direct assimilation of locally-produced basal meltwater into the underlying subglacial sediment. In contrast, regions of increased drag are found to follow several of the glacier’s shear margins, and furthermore to coincide with inferred hydrological pathways. We interpret this basal strengthening as signature of an efficient hydrological system, where low-pressure water channels have reduced the surrounding basal water pressure. These are the first identified stabilization mechanisms to have developed alongside Pine Island ice flow acceleration. Indeed, these processes could become more significant with increased meltwater availability and may limit the glacier’s response to perturbation near its grounding line., This work was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) iSTAR programme (NE/J005800/1, NE/J005738 and NE/J005754/1) and the Isaac Newton Trust.