Articles | Volume 14, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3747-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3747-2020
Research article
 | 
12 Nov 2020
Research article |  | 12 Nov 2020

Possible impacts of a 1000 km long hypothetical subglacial river valley towards Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland

Christopher Chambers, Ralf Greve, Bas Altena, and Pierre-Marie Lefeuvre

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Cited articles

Bamber, J. L., Siegert, M. J., Griggs, J. A., Marshall, S. J., and Spada, G.: Paleofluvial mega-canyon beneath the central Greenland Ice Sheet, Science, 341, 997–999, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1239794, 2013. a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h
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Short summary
The topography of the rock below the Greenland ice sheet is not well known. One long valley appears as a line of dips because of incomplete data. So we use ice model simulations that unblock this valley, and these create a watercourse that may represent a form of river over 1000 km long under the ice. When we melt ice at the bottom of the ice sheet only in the deep interior, water can flow down the valley only when the valley is unblocked. It may have developed while an ice sheet was present.