Deformation, warming and softening of Greenland’s ice by refreezing meltwater

When basal meltwater refreezes, the resulting warm ice can influence the flow dynamics of the ice sheet above. An analysis of airborne gravity and radar data identifies extensive basal-ice units across the northern Greenland ice sheet that coincide with areas of deformed ice and fast ice flow.

[1]  Robin E. Bell,et al.  Identification and control of subglacial water networks under Dome A, Antarctica , 2013 .

[2]  Prasad Gogineni,et al.  Observation and analysis of ice flow in the largest Greenland ice stream , 2001 .

[3]  R. Bell,et al.  Origin and fate of Lake Vostok water frozen to the base of the East Antarctic ice sheet , 2002, Nature.

[4]  Sridhar Anandakrishnan,et al.  Complex fabric development revealed by englacial seismic reflectivity: Jakobshavn Isbræ, Greenland , 2008 .

[5]  Local Friction Laws for Glaciers: A Critical Review and New Openings , 1979 .

[6]  Garry K. C. Clarke,et al.  Hydraulics of subglacial supercooling: Theory and simulations for clear water flows , 2010 .

[7]  Surface and bed topography of Trapridge Glacier, Yukon Territory, Canada : digital elevation models and derived hydraulic geometry , 1999 .

[8]  Leigh A. Stearns,et al.  Increased flow speed on a large East Antarctic outlet glacier caused by subglacial floods , 2008 .

[9]  R. Armstrong,et al.  The Physics of Glaciers , 1981 .

[10]  X. Fettweis,et al.  Sensitivity of Greenland Ice Sheet surface mass balance to surface albedo parameterization: a study with a regional climate model , 2012 .

[11]  G. Oswald,et al.  Recovery of subglacial water extent from Greenland radar survey data , 2008, Journal of Glaciology.

[12]  Anthony Wong,et al.  Detection of hills from radar data in central-northern Greenland , 1998 .

[13]  Kenji Kawamura,et al.  Eemian interglacial reconstructed from a Greenland folded ice core , 2013, Nature.

[14]  R. Bell,et al.  Controls on the Geometry of Accretion Reflectors , 2012 .

[15]  H. Oerter,et al.  Comparison between Greenland ice-margin and ice-core oxygen-18 records , 2002, Annals of Glaciology.

[16]  Dorthe Dahl-Jensen,et al.  Basal melt at NorthGRIP modeled from borehole, ice-core and radio-echo sounder observations , 2003, Annals of Glaciology.

[17]  Adrian Jenkins,et al.  Evidence from ice shelves for channelized meltwater flow beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet , 2013 .

[18]  J Schwander,et al.  High-resolution record of Northern Hemisphere climate extending into the last interglacial period , 2004, Nature.

[19]  Dorthe Dahl-Jensen,et al.  Tracing the depth of the Holocene ice in North Greenland from radio-echo sounding data , 2013, Annals of Glaciology.

[20]  Eric Rignot,et al.  Channelized bottom melting and stability of floating ice shelves , 2008 .

[21]  Gudmandsen Preben Layer echoes in polar ice sheets , 1975 .

[22]  Ian M. Howat,et al.  A new bed elevation dataset for Greenland , 2012 .

[23]  David Braaten,et al.  Widespread Persistent Thickening of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet by Freezing from the Base , 2011, Science.

[24]  S. Marshall,et al.  Paleofluvial Mega-Canyon Beneath the Central Greenland Ice Sheet , 2013, Science.

[25]  R. L. Shreve Movement of water in glaciers , 1972 .

[26]  R. Hindmarsh,et al.  Draping or overriding: The effect of horizontal stress gradients on internal layer architecture in ice sheets , 2006 .

[27]  G. Catania,et al.  Characterizing englacial drainage in the ablation zone of the Greenland ice sheet , 2008 .