Subglacial Water Flow Over an Antarctic Palaeo-Ice Stream Bed
Authors
Publication Date
2022Journal Title
Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface
ISSN
2169-9003
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Volume
127
Issue
2
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
AO
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Hogan, K., Arnold, N., Larter, R., Kirkham, J., Noormets, R., Ó Cofaigh, C., Golledge, N., & et al. (2022). Subglacial Water Flow Over an Antarctic Palaeo-Ice Stream Bed. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 127 (2) https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JF006442
Abstract
Abstract: The subglacial hydrological system exerts a critical control on the dynamic behavior of the overlying ice because its configuration affects the degree of basal lubrication between the ice and the bed. Yet, this component of the glaciological system is notoriously hard to access and observe, particularly over timescales longer than the satellite era. In Antarctica, abundant evidence for past subglacial water flow over former ice‐sheet beds exists around the peripheries of the ice sheet including networks of huge channels carved into bedrock (now submarine) on the Pacific margin of West Antarctica. Here, we combine detailed bathymetric investigations of a channel system in Marguerite Trough, a major palaeo‐ice stream bed, with numerical hydrological modeling to explore subglacial water accumulation, routing and potential for erosion over decadal‐centennial timescales. Detailed channel morphologies from remotely operated vehicle surveys indicate multiple stages of localized incision, and the occurrence of potholes, some gigantic in scale, suggests incision by turbulent water carrying a significant bedload. Further, the modeling indicates that subglacial water is available during deglaciation and was likely released in episodic drainage events, from subglacial lakes, varying in magnitude over time. Our observations support previous assertions that these huge bedrock channel systems were incised over multiple glacial cycles through episodic subglacial lake drainage events; however, here we present a viable pattern for subglacial drainage at times when the ice sheet existed over the continental shelf and was capable of continuing to erode the bedrock substrate.
Keywords
CRYOSPHERE, Ice streams, MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS, Seafloor morphology, geology, and geophysics, Submergence instruments: ROV, AUV, submersibles, Research Article, palaeo‐ice stream, subglacial hydrology, bedrock channels, Antarctica, subglacial lakes, marine geophysics
Sponsorship
NERC (NE/L002507/1)
Identifiers
jgrf21502, 2021jf006442
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JF006442
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/334195
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.