Ice flow acceleration has played a crucial role in the recent rapid retreat of calving glaciers in Alaska 1,2 , as well as in Greenland and Antarctica 3,4 . Fast flow of such glaciers is due primarily to basal ice motion 5 , but its mechanism is poorly understood because subglacial observations are scarce in calving glaciers. Here we show high-frequency ice speed and basal water pressure measurements performed in Glaciar Perito Moreno, a fast-flowing calving glacier in Patagonia. The water pressure was measured in a borehole drilled through the 515±5 m thick glacier at a site where more than 60% of ice is below the proglacial lake level. We found that mean basal water pressure reached 94-96% of the ice overburden pressure, and that a few percent of pressure changes were driving nearly 40% of ice speed variations. The ice speed was strongly correlated to air temperature, suggesting the glacier motion was modulated by water pressure 1 under the influence of changing meltwater input. Our observations demonstrate the great importance of basal water pressure in the calving glacier dynamics and its close connection to climate conditions. It is thus crucial to take into account the elevated basal water pressure for predicting future evolution of calving glaciers.Acceleration of fast-flowing calving glaciers is the focus of attention as it is responsible for the rapid retreat of large tidewater glaciers in Alaska 1,2 as well as the recent wastage of Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets 3,4 . Calving glaciers flow much faster than those terminating on land as a result of basal ice motion enhanced by high basal water pressure 5 . A commonly used basal flow law stateswhere u b is the basal ice speed, τ b is the basal shear stress, P i and P w are ice overburden and basal water pressures, and k, p and q are empirical parameters 6,7 . Because τ b is primarily controlled by ice thickness and surface slope, changes in basal water pressure play a critical role in short-term ice speed variations. Observations in mountain glaciers have shown rapid acceleration as basal water pressure approaches ice overburden pressure 8−10 , which confirms the non-linear dependence of the basal ice speed on the effective pressure defined by P e = P i − P w .The hydraulic head within a calving glacier is expected to be higher than the surface level of the proglacial water body, which maintains basal water pressure closer to ice overburden.According to the inverse proportionality of u b to P e , small perturbations in P w near P i result in large ice speed variations. Moreover, changes in P i due to glacier thinning or thickening have a great impact on the ice speed as well. These characteristics make calving glacier dynamics more susceptible to external forcing than land terminating glaciers. Studying the response of ice speed to the changes in P e is thus crucial for predicting the future evolution of calving glaciers. In the austral summer 2008/09 and 2010, we operated three GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers on GPM at hourly intervals ...
Calving glaciers are rapidly retreating in many regions under the influence of ice‐water interactions at the glacier front. In contrast to the numerous researches conducted on fjords in front of tidewater glaciers, very few studies have been reported on lakes in which freshwater calving glaciers terminate. To better understand ice‐water interactions at the front of freshwater calving glaciers, we measured lakewater temperature, turbidity, and bathymetry near Glaciar Perito Moreno, Upsala, and Viedma, large calving glaciers of the Southern Patagonia Icefield. The thermal structures of these lakes were significantly different from those reported in glacial fjords. There was no indication of upwelling subglacial meltwater; instead, turbid and cold glacial water discharge filled the region near the lake bottom. This was because water density was controlled by suspended sediment concentrations rather than by water temperature. Near‐surface wind‐driven circulation reaches a depth of ~180 m, forming a relatively warm isothermal layer (mean temperature of ~5–6°C at Perito Moreno, ~3–4°C at Upsala, and ~6–7°C at Viedma), which should convey heat energy to the ice‐water interface. However, the deeper part of the glacier front is in contact with stratified cold water, implying a limited amount of melting there. In the lake in front of Glaciar Viedma, the region deeper than 120 m was filled entirely with turbid and very cold water at pressure melting temperature. Our results revealed a previously unexplored thermal structure of proglacial lakes in Patagonia, suggesting its importance in the subaqueous melting of freshwater calving glaciers.
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