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[1] In the High Arctic, supra-and proglacial springs occur at Borup Fiord Pass, Ellesmere Island. Spring waters are sulfur bearing and isotope analysis suggests springs are fed by deeply circulating glacial meltwater. However, the mechanism maintaining spring flow is unclear in these areas of thick permafrost which would hamper the discharge of deep groundwater to the surface. It has been hypothesized that fracture zones along faults focus groundwater which discharges initially underneath wet-based parts of the ice. With thinning ice, the spring head is exposed to surface temperatures, tens of degrees lower than temperatures of pressure melting, and permafrost starts to develop. Numerical modeling of coupled heat and fluid flow suggest that focused groundwater discharge should eventually be cut off by permafrost encroaching into the feeding channel of the spring. Nevertheless, our model simulations show that these springs can remain flowing for millennia depending on the initial flow rate and ambient surface temperature. These systems might provide a terrestrial analog for the possible occurrence of Martian springs recharged by polar ice caps.Citation: Scheidegger, J. M., V. F. Bense, and S. E. Grasby (2012), Transient nature of Arctic spring systems driven by subglacial meltwater, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L12405,

Most currently permafrost-covered landscapes underwent fundamental shifts in the hydrogeological and the thermal regime as a result of deglaciation after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The transient effects of heat and fluid flow associated with retreating ice sheets are important to consider for the present-day hydrogeology of these regions. In this paper, we use numerical models to evaluate the evolution of taliks underneath proglacial lakes during deglaciation. In our models, the hydrological and thermal boundary conditions at the lake site are constraint by the hydrogeological impacts of ice sheet dynamics since the LGM. During the LGM, the ground surface was insulated from air temperatures, and as a result, there was no permafrost underneath the wet-based ice. Subsequently, ice sheet retreat led to an exposure of a proglacial area to subzero air temperatures and the formation of permafrost. Where proglacial lakes form, discharge of deeper groundwater becomes focused. In this scenario, subpermafrost groundwater flow is driven by a combination of direct subglacial recharge and elevated hydraulic heads preserved in that part of the aquifer. Advective heat flow can delay or prevent through taliks from freezing as function of aquifer properties. The presence and evolution of through taliks in thick permafrost can create complex and transient hydrogeological phenomena.

Better representations of groundwater processes need to be incorporated into large-scale hydrological models to improve simulations of regional- to global-scale hydrology and climate, as well as understanding of feedbacks between the human and natural systems. We incorporated a 2D groundwater flow model into the variable infiltration capacity (VIC) hydrological model code to address its lack of a lateral groundwater flow component. The water table was coupled with the variably saturated VIC soil column allowing bi-directional exchange of water between the aquifer and the soil. We then investigated how variations in aquifer properties and grid resolution affect modelled evapotranspiration (ET), runoff and groundwater recharge. We simulated nine idealised, homogenous aquifers with different combinations of transmissivity, storage coefficient, and three grid resolutions. The magnitude of cell ET, runoff, and recharge significantly depends on water table depth. In turn, the distribution of water table depths varied significantly as grid resolution increased from 1° to 0.05° for the medium and high transmissivity systems, resulting in changes of model-average fluxes of up to 12.3% of mean rainfall. For the low transmissivity aquifer, increasing the grid resolution has a minimal effect as lateral groundwater flow is low, and the VIC grid cells behave as vertical columns. The inclusion of the 2D groundwater model in VIC will enable the future representation of irrigation from groundwater pumping, and the feedbacks between groundwater use and the hydrological cycle.

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