“…Understanding the behaviour of subglacial meltwater systems is crucial because of their influence upon substrate rheology and ice-bed coupling (Boulton & Hindmarsh, 1987;Iverson et al, 1995;Boulton, 1996;Piotrowski et al, 2004Piotrowski et al, , 2006Evans et al, 2006;Kjaer et al, 2006;Lee & Phillips, 2008;Boulton et al, 2009), and in-turn, glacier dynamics that operate over a range of temporal and spatial scales (Kamb, 1987;Bartholomew et al, 2010;Sundal et al, 2011;Robel et al, 2013). Research now recognises that these processes act to drive the expansion, break-up and collapse of major ice streams and ice masses (MacAyeal, 1993;Clark, 1994;Tulaczyk et al, 2000;Bell et al, 2007;Stokes et al, 2007;Burke et al, 2012) thus linking subglacial drainage to collapsing ice masses, sea-level change and abrupt climate change (Goezler et al, 2011;King et al, 2012;Hanna et al, 2013;Fürst et al, 2014 and references therein). Indeed, subglacial meltwater systems underpin major global issues surrounding the stability of the modern Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, their sensitivity too and influence on current and future changes in sea-level and climate (Alley et al, 2005;Zwally et al, 2005;Shepherd & Wingham, 2007;Pfeffer et al, 2008).…”