Jason Gulley

Structural control of englacial drainage systems in Himalayan debris-covered glaciers

Englacial cave systems were mapped using speleological techniques in three debris-covered glaciers in the Khumbu Himal, Nepal. Detailed three-dimensional mapping of the cave systems and observations of relationships with structures in the surrounding ice show conduits formed by a mechanism directly analogous to speleogenesis in limestone karst. The highest, oldest parts of all passages developed along debris-filled crevasse traces with hydraulic conductivity in the range 10 -4 to 10 -5 ms -1 . Conduits form when these hydraulically efficient pathways bridge between areas with different hydraulic potential. They then evolve by grading (through head-ward migration of nick points and vertical incision) to local base level, often the surface of supraglacial lakes. Most supraglacial lakes on Himalayan glaciers are perched above the elevation of the terminal stream, and exist for a few years before draining through englacial conduits. As a result, near-surface drainage evolution is frequently interrupted by base-level fall, and conduits may record multiple phases of incision. Conduits commonly migrate laterally during incision, undermining higher levels of the ice and encouraging collapse. Voids can be created by fluvial processes and collapse of crevassed ice. The oft-noted resemblance of the surface morphology of debris-covered glaciers to karst landscapes thus extends to the subsurface, and karst hydrology provides a framework for understanding englacial drainage.

River reversals into karst springs: A model for cave enlargement in eogenetic karst aquifers

Most conceptual models of epigenic conduit development assume that conduits sourcing karst springs form as water that is undersaturated with respect to carbonate minerals flows from recharge to discharge points. This process is not possible in springs fed by distributed recharge that is transmitted through aquifer matrix porosity, such as unconfined aquifers in eogenetic carbonate rocks. Diffusely recharged water has a long residence time within the aquifer, and thus would have equilibrated with the aquifer rocks prior to discharge to the conduits. The upper Floridan aquifer has high matrix permeability (∼10 −13 m 2 ), and many springs lack discrete inputs of undersaturated allogenic water in their recharge areas. Consequently, another explanation for their development is necessary. During flooding of the Suwannee River in north-central Florida, water highly undersaturated with respect to carbonate minerals commonly recharges the upper Floridan aquifer through spring vents, and solution scallops oriented away from the vents suggest most dissolution along conduit walls occurs during these flow reversals. During a single flow reversal at the Peacock Spring cave system, flood water was capable of dissolving up to 3.4 mm of the conduit wall rock. Dissolution occurs as flow reversals follow preexisting features that include joints and paleo–water-table caves. Lack of speleothems in conduits in the upper Floridan aquifer has been used as evidence that the caves formed in the phreatic zone; however, flooding would dissolve any speleothems that may have formed during previous subaerial exposure. Conduit enlargement during flow reversals suggests that dissolution can progress in the normal upstream directions, and this process may be an important driver of dissolution in any karst aquifer with outflows to surface water that are subject to flooding. Flow reversals would also introduce dissolved organic carbon and oxygen into the groundwater and provide important energy sources for cave ecosystems as well as altering redox chemistry of the aquifer water.

Structural control of englacial conduits in the temperate Matanuska Glacier, Alaska, USA

Fourteen englacial conduits were mapped within 2 km of the terminus of the temperate Matanuska Glacier, Alaska, USA, to ice depths of 65 m using speleological techniques. Detailed three- dimensional maps of the conduits were made over 3 years to characterize conduit relationships with glacier structural features and to track conduit evolution through time. All conduits consisted of single unbranching passages that followed fractures in the ice. All conduits were either too constricted to continue or became water-filled at their deepest explored point and were not able to be followed to the glacier bed. Conduit morphology varied systematically with the orientation of the glacier principal stresses, allowing them to be categorized into two broad classes. The first class of conduits were formed by hydrostatic crevasse penetration where a large supraglacial stream intersected longitudinal crevasses. These conduits plunged toward the glacier bed at angles of 30-408. The second class of conduits formed where smaller streams sank into the glacier on shear crevasses. Many of these conduits changed direction dramatically where they intersected transverse crevasses at depth. These results suggest that the conduits observed in this study formed along fractures and, over their surveyed length, were not affected by gradients in ice overburden pressure.

Greenland subglacial drainage evolution regulated by weakly connected regions of the bed

Penetration of surface meltwater to the bed of the Greenland Ice Sheet each summer causes an initial increase in ice speed due to elevated basal water pressure, followed by slowdown in late summer that continues into fall and winter. While this seasonal pattern is commonly explained by an evolution of the subglacial drainage system from an inefficient distributed to efficient channelized configuration, mounting evidence indicates that subglacial channels are unable to explain important aspects of hydrodynamic coupling in late summer and fall. Here we use numerical models of subglacial drainage and ice flow to show that limited, gradual leakage of water and lowering of water pressure in weakly connected regions of the bed can explain the dominant features in late and post melt season ice dynamics. These results suggest that a third weakly connected drainage component should be included in the conceptual model of subglacial hydrology.

Surge propagation constrained by a persistent subglacial conduit, Bakaninbreen-Paulabreen, Svalbard

Abstract Glacier surges tend to be initiated in relatively small regions, then propagate down-glacier, up-glacier and/or across-glacier. The processes controlling patterns and rates of surge propagation, however, are incompletely understood. In this paper, we focus on patterns of surge propagation in two confluent glaciers in Svalbard, and examine possible causes. One of these glaciers, Bakaninbreen, surged in 1985–95. The surge propagated ∽7 km down-glacier, but did not cross the medial moraine onto the other glacier, Paulabreen. When Paulabreen surged between 2003 and 2005, the surge wave travelled several km down-glacier, but its lateral boundary stayed very close to the medial moraine. The confluent glaciers formerly extended into a fjord, and bathymetric mapping and historical observations show that an active subglacial conduit has existed between Bakaninbreen and Paulabreen since at least the early 20th century. The existence of a persistent subglacial conduit below the medial moraine was confirmed when we entered and mapped a Nye channel at the confluence of Bakaninbreen and Paulabreen. We argue that the conduit acts as a barrier to surge propagation. If pressurized water below one branch of the glacier system reaches the conduit, water can be readily evacuated, preventing its propagation into the other branch.

Corrigendum: Greenland subglacial drainage evolution regulated by weakly connected regions of the bed

Nature Communications 7: Article number: 13903 (2016); Published 19 December 2016; Updated 7 February 2017 The original version of this Article contained a typographical error in the spelling of the author Stephen F. Price, which was incorrectly given as Stephen A. Price. This has now been correctedin both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.