Brief Communication: Sudden drainage of a subglacial lake beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet

We report on the appearance of a 2 km wide, 70 m deep circular depression located 50 km inland of the southwestern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet that provides the first direct evidence for concentrated, long-term storage, and sudden release, of meltwater at the bed. Drainage of the lake may have...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe cryosphere Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 103 - 108
Main Authors Howat, I. M, Porter, C, Noh, M. J, Smith, B. E, Jeong, S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Copernicus GmbH 15.01.2015
Copernicus Publications
Subjects
Ice sheets
Lakes
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Summary:We report on the appearance of a 2 km wide, 70 m deep circular depression located 50 km inland of the southwestern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet that provides the first direct evidence for concentrated, long-term storage, and sudden release, of meltwater at the bed. Drainage of the lake may have been triggered by the recent increase in meltwater runoff. The abundance of such lakes and their potential importance to the ice sheet's hydrologic system and flow regime remain unknown.
ISSN:1994-0424
1994-0416
1994-0424
DOI:10.5194/tc-9-103-2015