Characterization of the englacial and subglacial drainage system in a high Arctic cold glacier by speleological mapping and ground-penetrating radar

ABSTRACT

This paper presents new data obtained by speleological surveys and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) on a cut-and-closure conduit in Scott Turnerbreen, a small cold glacier in Svalbard, Norwegian Arctic. We use these data to propose criteria for the identification of cut-and-closure conduits from GPR data. In addition, we describe subglacial and englacial structures exposed in the conduit, which shed light on the former dynamic behaviour of the glacier. The glacier bed consists of a thick layer of subglacial traction till, from which till-filled fractures extend upward into the ice. These observations show that Scott Turnerbreen was formerly warm-based, and are consistent with a surge or surge-like behaviour. The channel system was also imaged using GPR. Varying channel morphologies have distinctive signatures on GPR profiles, allowing the identification and mapping of englacial drainage systems in situations where direct access is impossible.

KEYWORDS:

• Englacial/subglacial drainage
• glacier hydrology
• ground-penetrating radar
• surge
• basal crevasses
• Svalbard

Acknowledgements

We thank Kathleen van Hoof and Annelie Bergström for field assistance, and Adam Booth and Karoline Baelum for help with the processing of GPR data. We highly appreciate field work support from the logistics department of the University Centre in Svalbard.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Maria Temminghoff research assistant at Ruhr-University of Bochum; completed her Master degree in physical geography and is mainly interested in glaciology and climatology.

Jason D. Gulley Jason is primarily interested in understanding self-organizing hydrological systems in glaciers and ice sheets, as well as in carbonate aquifers. His research methodologies bridge the fields of geomorphology, physical hydrology and aqueous geochemistry.

Heidi Sevestre Heidi is a Postodoctoral Research Fellow in glaciology at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. In 2015, she was recently awarded her PhD by the University of Oslo, although she spent the 4 years of her thesis living and working on the archipelago of Svalbard, in the Norwegian Arctic. Her passion for glaciers stems from her childhood spent hiking up and down mountains in the French Alps. Before focusing on glaciology, her studies in geography and geology would take her to Annecy (France) and Aberystwyth (Wales, UK).

Douglas I. Benn Professor of Glaciology at the University Centre in Svalbard and at St. Andrews, UK.

ORCID

M. Temminghoff http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0398-5581

D. I. Benn http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3604-0886

J. D. Gulley http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9019-1407

H. Sevestre http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4884-7932

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the “German Academic Exchange Service” (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)), [grant number D/07/50254].