Glacier surges

Truffer, Martin; Kääb, Andreas; Harrison, W. D.; Осипова, Г. Б.; Nosenko, G.; Espizua, Lydia E.; Gilbert, Adrien; Fischer, Luzia; Huggel, Christian; Burns, Patty A. Craw; Lai, Alexandre W.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-817129-5.00003-2

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…The cyclical advance of surge-type glaciers can result in repeated and widespread glacier hazard formation (Gardner and Hewitt, 1990;Ding et al, 2018;Bhambri et al, 2019;Truffer et al, 2021). Hazards associated with surge-type glaciers impact both the local environment in the path of the advancing glacier terminus (Shangguan et al, 2016) and communities further downstream, in the path of meltwater produced by glaciers at the head of mountain catchments.…”

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confidence: 99%

A regionally resolved inventory of High Mountain Asia surge-type glaciers, derived from a multi-factor remote sensing approach

Guillet

King

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. Knowledge about the occurrence and characteristics of surge-type glaciers is crucial due to the impact of surging on glacier melt and glacier related hazards. One of the "super-clusters" of surge-type glaciers is the mountains of Asia. However, no consistent region-wide inventory of surge-type glaciers in High Mountain Asia exists. We present a regionally resolved inventory of surge-type glaciers based on their behaviour across High Mountain Asia between 2000 and 2018. We identify surge-type behaviour from surface velocity, elevation and feature change patterns using a multi-factor remote sensing approach that combines yearly ITS_LIVE velocity data, DEM differences and very-high resolution imagery (Bing Maps, Google Earth). Out of the ≈ 95000 glaciers in HMA, we identified 666 that show diagnostic surge-type glacier behaviour between 2000 and 2018, which are mainly found in the Karakoram (223) and the Pamir regions (223). The total area covered by the 666 surge-type glaciers represents 19.5 % of the glacierized area in Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI) V6.0 polygons in HMA. Across all regions of HMA, the surge-affected area within glacier complexes displays a significant power law dependency with glacier length. We validate 107 previously identified glaciers as surge-type and newly identify 491 glaciers. We finally discuss the possibility of self-organized criticality in glacier surges.

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confidence: 99%

A regionally resolved inventory of High Mountain Asia surge-type glaciers, derived from a multi-factor remote sensing approach

Guillet

King

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…Surging glaciers are common in Alaska (Sevestre & Benn, 2017). Glacier surges are usually quasi‐periodic events of short‐term or even long‐term rapid glacier flow (Truffer et al., 2021), driven by internal instability and accompanied by longer intervening periods of slow flow during a quiescent phase (Meier & Post, 1969). During the active phase, large volumes of ice are transferred typically from the upper reservoir zone to the lower receiving zone.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Generally, the surface elevation of a surging glacier decreases in the reservoir zone and increases in the receiving zone during the surge (Bevington & Copland, 2014). In the quiescent phase, the accumulated ice in the reservoir area is not entirely transferred away, and the glacier elevation here increases (Truffer et al., 2021). Therefore, changes in the site elevations from the two altimeters are generally insufficient to identify the occurrences of surge events.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the active phase, large volumes of ice are transferred typically from the upper reservoir zone to the lower receiving zone. These zones are usually independent of the accumulation and ablation areas we know (Truffer et al, 2021). The discontinuity of glacier elevation changes and the rate shifts are likely to be controlled by surge events.…”

Section: Patterns Of Glacier Elevation Changes From T/p and J2mentioning

confidence: 98%

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The Rise and Fall of Alaska and Yukon Glaciers Detected by TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason‐2 Altimeters Using a Novel Glacier‐Threshold Method

et al. 2023

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There are about 27,000 glaciers in Alaska (Mcgrath et al., 2017;Pfeffer et al., 2014). The glaciers here began to retreat as early as the 18th century, and some small glaciers have disappeared in the 20th century (Molnia, 2008). Recent studies show that in the past half century, the rapidly melting glaciers in Alaska have contributed to a third of the global sea level rise (Zemp et al., 2019). This ice loss has been accelerating in the last decade (Hugonnet et al., 2021;Jakob et al., 2020). Mass losses associated with Alaska glacier melting have been detected by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data. Luthcke et al. (2008Luthcke et al. ( , 2013 first used GRACE mascon solutions to confirm significant mass losses in Alaska, similar to the results from the solutions using spherical harmonic expansions (Gardner et al., 2013;Jacob et al., 2012;Wouters et al., 2019). The latest time-varying gravity observations of GRACE and GRACE Follow-On show that the glacier-induced mass losses are intensifying

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“…Surge‐type glaciers exhibit long periods of quiescence and short periods of accelerated motion, transferring substantial ice mass to lower elevation and thus often leading to rapid ice loss (Cuffey & Paterson, 2010; Meier & Post, 1969). They represent approximately 1% of the glaciers in the world (Sevestre & Benn, 2015) and pose a considerable hazard potential (Truffer et al., 2021). Surges can occur at quasi‐regular time intervals and a huge spatial variability has been observed, with surging and non‐surging glaciers located next to each other (Bhambri et al., 2017; Cuffey & Paterson, 2010; Meier & Post, 1969).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Machine Learning Framework to Automate the Classification of Surge‐Type Glaciers in Svalbard

et al. 2022

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Surge‐type glaciers are present in many cold environments in the world. These glaciers experience a dramatic increase in velocity over short time periods, the surge, followed by an extended period of slow movement, the quiescence. This study aims at understanding why only few glaciers exhibit a transient behavior. We develop a machine learning framework to classify surge‐type glaciers, based on their location, exposure, geometry, climatic mass balance and runoff. We apply this approach to the Svalbard archipelago, a region with a relatively homogeneous climate. We compare the performance of logistic regression, random forest, and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) machine learning models that we apply to a newly combined database of glaciers in Svalbard. Based on the most accurate model, XGBoost, we compute surge probabilities along glacier centerlines and quantify the relative importance of several controlling features. Results show that the surface and bed slopes, ice thickness, glacier width, climatic mass balance, and runoff along glacier centerlines are the most significant features explaining surge probability for glaciers in Svalbard. A thicker and wider glacier with a low surface slope has a higher probability to be classified as surge‐type, which is in good agreement with the existing theories of surging. Finally, we build a probability map of surge‐type glaciers in Svalbard. The framework shows robustness on classifying surge‐type glaciers that were not previously classified as such in existing inventories but have been observed surging. Our methodology could be extended to classify surge‐type glaciers in other areas of the world.

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Glacier surges

Cited by 17 publications

References 105 publications

A regionally resolved inventory of High Mountain Asia surge-type glaciers, derived from a multi-factor remote sensing approach

A regionally resolved inventory of High Mountain Asia surge-type glaciers, derived from a multi-factor remote sensing approach

The Rise and Fall of Alaska and Yukon Glaciers Detected by TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason‐2 Altimeters Using a Novel Glacier‐Threshold Method

A Machine Learning Framework to Automate the Classification of Surge‐Type Glaciers in Svalbard

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