Active subglacial lakes and channelized water flow beneath the Kamb Ice Stream

Kim, Byeong-Hoon; Lee, Choon-Ki; Seo, Ki-Weon; Lee, Won Sang; Scambos, Ted

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2971-2016

Articles | Volume 10, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2971-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2971-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 10, issue 6

Research article

|

01 Dec 2016

Research article |

| 01 Dec 2016

Active subglacial lakes and channelized water flow beneath the Kamb Ice Stream

Byeong-Hoon Kim, Choon-Ki Lee, Ki-Weon Seo, Won Sang Lee, and Ted Scambos

Data sets

ESA Earth Online European Space Agency (ESA) ftp://science-pds.cryosat.esa.int

EarthExplorer US Geological Survey (USGS) http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov

GLAS/ICESat L2 Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheet Altimetry Data H. J. Zwally, R. Schutz, C. Bentley, J. Bufton, T. Herring, J. Minster, J. Spinhirne, and R. Thomas https://doi.org/10.5067/ICESAT/GLAS/DATA225

Short summary

Kamb Ice Stream (KIS) in Antarctica ceased rapid ice flow approximately 160 years ago, still influencing on the current mass balance of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. We identify two previously unknown subglacial lakes beneath the stagnated trunk of the KIS. Rapid fill-drain hydrologic events over several months indicate that the lakes are probably connected by a subglacial drainage network. Our findings support previously published conceptual models of the KIS shutdown.