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Glaciohydraulic supercooling in Iceland

Lookup NU author(s): Emeritus Professor Andrew Russell

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Abstract

We present evidence of glaciohydraulic supercooling under jökulhlaup and ablation-dominated conditions from two temperate Icelandic glaciers. Observations show that freezing of sediment-laden meltwater leads to intraglacial debris entrainment during normal and extreme hydrological regimes. Intraglacial frazil ice propagation under normal ablation-dominated conditions can trap copious volumes of sediment, which forms anomalously thick outcrops of debris-rich ice. Glaciohydraulic supercooling plays an important role in intraglacial debris entrainment and should be given more attention in models of basal ice development. Extreme jökulhlaup conditions can result in significant intraglacial sediment accretion by supercooling, which may explain the concentration of englacial sediments deposited in Heinrich layers in the North Atlantic during the last glaciation.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Roberts MJ, Tweed FS, Russell AJ, Knudsen Ó, Lawson DE, Larson GJ, Evenson EB, Björnsson H

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Geology

Year: 2002

Volume: 30

Issue: 5

Pages: 439-442

ISSN (print): 0091-7613

ISSN (electronic): 1943-2682

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(2002)030<0439:GSII>2.0.CO;2

DOI: 10.1130/0091-7613(2002)030<0439:GSII>2.0.CO;2

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