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Subglacial lakes and hydrology across the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, West Antarctica

Napoleoni, F.; Jamieson, S.S.R.; Ross, N.; Bentley, M.J.; Rivera, A.; Smith, A.M.; Siegert, M.J.; Paxman, G.J.G.; Gacitua, G.; Uribe, J.A.; Zamora, R.; Brisbourne, A.M.; Vaughan, D.G.

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Authors

F. Napoleoni

N. Ross

A. Rivera

A.M. Smith

M.J. Siegert

G.J.G. Paxman

G. Gacitua

J.A. Uribe

R. Zamora

A.M. Brisbourne

D.G. Vaughan



Abstract

Subglacial water plays an important role in ice sheet dynamics and stability. Subglacial lakes are often located at the onset of ice streams and have been hypothesised to enhance ice flow downstream by lubricating the ice– bed interface. The most recent subglacial-lake inventory of Antarctica mapped nearly 400 lakes, of which ∼ 14 % are found in West Antarctica. Despite the potential importance of subglacial water for ice dynamics, there is a lack of detailed subglacial-water characterisation in West Antarctica. Using radio-echo sounding data, we analyse the ice–bed interface to detect subglacial lakes. We report 33 previously uncharted subglacial lakes and present a systematic analysis of their physical properties. This represents a ∼ 40 % increase in subglacial lakes in West Antarctica. Additionally, a new digital elevation model of basal topography of the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands was built and used to create a hydropotential model to simulate the subglacial hydrological network. This allows us to characterise basal hydrology, determine subglacial water catchments and assess their connectivity. We show that the simulated subglacial hydrological catchments of the Rutford Ice Stream, Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier do not correspond to their ice surface catchments.

Citation

Napoleoni, F., Jamieson, S., Ross, N., Bentley, M., Rivera, A., Smith, A., …Vaughan, D. (2020). Subglacial lakes and hydrology across the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, West Antarctica. The Cryosphere, 14, 4507-4524. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4507-2020

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 25, 2020
Online Publication Date Dec 10, 2020
Publication Date 2020-12
Deposit Date Feb 28, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Cryosphere
Electronic ISSN 1994-0424
Publisher Copernicus Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 14
Pages 4507-4524
DOI https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4507-2020
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1275617

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