Journal
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
Volume 48, Issue 162, Pages 369-385Publisher
INT GLACIOL SOC
DOI: 10.3189/172756502781831322
Keywords
-
Ask authors/readers for more resources
At a site on the ice sheet adjacent to the Jakobshavn ice stream in West Greenland, ice deformation rates and temperatures have been measured in boreholes to the bedrock at 830 in depth. Enhanced deformation rates were recorded just below the Holocene-Wisconsin transition at 680 in depth. A 31 m layer of temperate ice and the temperature minimum of -22degreesC at 520 m depth were detected. The good agreement of these data with results of a two-dimensional thermomechanically coupled flow model implies that the model input is adequate. Discrepancies between modelled and measured temperature profiles on a flowline at the ice-stream centre have been attributed to effects not accounted for by the model. We have suggested that the convergent three-dimensional flow leads to a vertical extension of the basal ice entering the stream. A thick basal layer of temperate and Wisconsin ice would explain the fast flow of this ice stream. As a test of this hypothesis, the new core-borehole conductivity (CBC) method has been used to compare conductivity sequences from the ice stream to those of the adjacent ice sheet. The correlation thus inferred suggests that the lowest 270 m of the ice sheet correspond to the lowermost 1700 m of the stream, and, consequently, that the lower part of the ice stream has experienced a very large vertical extension.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available