Lynn Montgomery

Hydraulic Conductivity of a Firn Aquifer in Southeast Greenland

Some regions of the Greenland ice sheet, where snow accumulation and melt rates are high, currently retain substantial volumes of liquid water within the firn pore space throughout the year. These firn aquifers, found between ~10-30 m below the snow surface, may significantly affect sea level rise by storing or draining surface meltwater. The hydraulic gradient and the hydraulic conductivity control flow of meltwater through the firn. Here we describe the hydraulic conductivity of the firn aquifer estimated from slug tests and aquifer tests at six sites located upstream of Helheim Glacier in southeastern Greenland. We conducted slug tests using a novel instrument, a piezometer with a heated tip that melts itself into the ice sheet. Hydraulic conductivity ranges between 2.5x10-5 and 1.1x10-3 m/s. The geometric mean of hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer is 2.7x10-4 m/s with a geometric standard deviation of 1.4 from both depth specific slug tests (analyzed using the Hvorslev method) and aquifer tests during the recovery period. Hydraulic conductivity is relatively consistent between boreholes and only decreases slightly with depth. The hydraulic conductivity of the firn aquifer is crucial for determining flow rates and patterns within the aquifer, which inform hydrologic models of the aquifer, its relation to the broader glacial hydrologic system, and its effect on sea level rise.

Investigation of Firn Aquifer Structure in Southeastern Greenland Using Active Source Seismology

In spring of 2011, a perennial storage of water was observed in the firn of the southeastern Greenland ice sheet, a region of both high snow accumulation and high melt. This aquifer is created through percolation of surface meltwater downward through the firn, saturating the pore space above the ice-firn transition. The aquifer may play a significant role in sea level rise through storage or draining freshwater into the ocean. We carried out a series of active source seismic experiments using continuously refracted P-waves and inverted the first P-arrivals using a transdimensional Bayesian approach where the depth, velocity, and number of layers are allowed to vary to identify the seismic velocities associated with the base of the aquifer. When our seismic approach is combined with a radar sounding of the water table situated at the top of the firn aquifer, we are able to quantify the volume of water present. In our study region, the base of the aquifer lies on average 27.7±2.9 m beneath the surface, with an average thickness of 11.5±5.5 m. Using a Wyllie average for porosity, we found the aquifer has an average water content of 16±8%, with considerable variation in water storage capacity along the studied east-west flow line, 40 km upstream of the Helheim glacier terminus. Between 2015 and 2016, we observed a 1-2 km uphill expansion of the aquifer system, with a site dry in summer 2015 exhibiting a water content of 530 kg m-2 in summer 2016. We estimate the volume of water stored in the aquifer across the entire region upstream of Helheim glacier to be 4.7±3.1 Gt, approximately 3% of the total water stored in firn aquifers across the Greenland ice sheet. Elucidating the volume of water stored within these recently discovered aquifers is vital for determining the hydrological structure and stability of the southeastern Greenland ice sheet.