Ground-penetrating radar reveals ice thickness and undisturbed englacial layers at Kilimanjaro's Northern Ice Field

Bohleber, Pascal; Sold, Leo; Hardy, Douglas R.; Schwikowski, Margit; Klenk, Patrick; Fischer, Andrea; Sirguey, Pascal; Cullen, Nicolas J.; Potocki, Mariusz; Hoffmann, Helene; Mayewski, Paul

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-469-2017

Articles | Volume 11, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-469-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-469-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 1

Research article

|

09 Feb 2017

Research article |

| 09 Feb 2017

Ground-penetrating radar reveals ice thickness and undisturbed englacial layers at Kilimanjaro's Northern Ice Field

Pascal Bohleber, Leo Sold, Douglas R. Hardy, Margit Schwikowski, Patrick Klenk, Andrea Fischer, Pascal Sirguey, Nicolas J. Cullen, Mariusz Potocki, Helene Hoffmann, and Paul Mayewski

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Final revised paper (published on 09 Feb 2017)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 05 Jul 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Comments on “Ground-penetrating radar reveals ice thickness and undisturbed englacial layers at Kilimanjaro’s Northern Ice Field” by Bohleber et al., 2016', Denis Samyn, 12 Sep 2016
- AC1: 'Response of the authors to comments by Denis Samyn', Pascal Bohleber, 11 Nov 2016
RC2: 'Review of "Ground-penetrating radar reveals ice thickness and undisturbed englacial layers at Kilimanjaro's Northern Ice Field" by Pascal Bohleber et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 19 Sep 2016
- AC2: 'Response of the authors to comments by Anonymous Referee #2', Pascal Bohleber, 11 Nov 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Pascal Bohleber on behalf of the Authors (11 Nov 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (15 Nov 2016) by Kenichi Matsuoka

AR by Pascal Bohleber on behalf of the Authors (29 Nov 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (03 Jan 2017) by Kenichi Matsuoka

Dear authors,

Thank you for submitting the revised manuscript timely and for being patient while I deployed to a field camp in Antarctica. The new supplement figure (all radargrams) constitutes strong evidence of author’s argument, and editing in this stage clarified many issues. So I am happy to accept this manuscript with technical corrections.

- In conclusion, the authors argue that the ice stratigraphy is preserved at least in the top 30 m, which is supported by radar data. Separately, the authors mention that chemical and isotope records may be disturbed in the top 10 m at the very end of discussion (Section 3.3). I judge that both statements are valid but request a more synthesized statement in the conclusion, such as “Macroscopic coherence of the radar data infers uninterrupted ice in the top 30 m, but abundant melt water could potentially collapse chemical and isotope records in the top 10 m.”

- In table 2, show area in the unit of 10^6 m^2 only to justifiable significant digits.

- Regarding minor points #14 and #15, the main source of confusion is, I believe, that the manuscript does not distinguish (1) radar reflector and (2) ice layer that is bounded by two adjacent reflectors. Convergence of two radar reflectors make a single narrowing ice layer. Please revise the relevant text.

- Be more specific in the data availability; I.e. “ice thickness along all radar profiles are available at…”

- Clarify non-lat/lon coordinates in Figures 1, 6, 7, and 9 (is it UTM? If so, specify the zone).

- In the supplement figure, does a gray curve show the outline of the cliff? Clarify it in the caption.

Thank you for submitting your work in the journal The Cryosphere

Kenny Matsuoka
TC/TCD Editor

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AR by Pascal Bohleber on behalf of the Authors (09 Jan 2017) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

Our study is the first to use ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to investigate ice thickness and internal layering at Kilimanjaro’s largest ice body, the Northern Ice Field (NIF). For monitoring the ongoing ice loss, our ice thickness soundings allowed us to estimate the total ice volume remaining at NIF's southern portion. Englacial GPR reflections indicate undisturbed layers within NIF's center and provide a first link between age information obtained from ice coring and vertical wall sampling.