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

Related authors

The future sea-level contribution of the Greenland ice sheet: a multi-model ensemble study of ISMIP6
Heiko Goelzer, Sophie Nowicki, Anthony Payne, Eric Larour, Helene Seroussi, William H. Lipscomb, Jonathan Gregory, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Andrew Shepherd, Erika Simon, Cécile Agosta, Patrick Alexander, Andy Aschwanden, Alice Barthel, Reinhard Calov, Christopher Chambers, Youngmin Choi, Joshua Cuzzone, Christophe Dumas, Tamsin Edwards, Denis Felikson, Xavier Fettweis, Nicholas R. Golledge, Ralf Greve, Angelika Humbert, Philippe Huybrechts, Sebastien Le clec'h, Victoria Lee, Gunter Leguy, Chris Little, Daniel P. Lowry, Mathieu Morlighem, Isabel Nias, Aurelien Quiquet, Martin Rückamp, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Donald A. Slater, Robin S. Smith, Fiamma Straneo, Lev Tarasov, Roderik van de Wal, and Michiel van den Broeke
The Cryosphere, 14, 3071–3096, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3071-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3071-2020, 2020
Short summary

Related subject area

Discipline: Ice sheets | Subject: Arctic (e.g. Greenland)
Recent warming trends of the Greenland ice sheet documented by historical firn and ice temperature observations and machine learning
Baptiste Vandecrux, Robert S. Fausto, Jason E. Box, Federico Covi, Regine Hock, Åsa K. Rennermalm, Achim Heilig, Jakob Abermann, Dirk van As, Elisa Bjerre, Xavier Fettweis, Paul C. J. P. Smeets, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Michiel R. van den Broeke, Max Brils, Peter L. Langen, Ruth Mottram, and Andreas P. Ahlstrøm
The Cryosphere, 18, 609–631, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-609-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-609-2024, 2024
Short summary
Spatially heterogeneous effect of climate warming on the Arctic land ice
Damien Maure, Christoph Kittel, Clara Lambin, Alison Delhasse, and Xavier Fettweis
The Cryosphere, 17, 4645–4659, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4645-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4645-2023, 2023
Short summary
Improving modelled albedo over the Greenland ice sheet through parameter optimisation and MODIS snow albedo retrievals
Nina Raoult, Sylvie Charbit, Christophe Dumas, Fabienne Maignan, Catherine Ottlé, and Vladislav Bastrikov
The Cryosphere, 17, 2705–2724, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2705-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2705-2023, 2023
Short summary
Hydraulic suppression of basal glacier melt in sill fjords
Johan Nilsson, Eef van Dongen, Martin Jakobsson, Matt O'Regan, and Christian Stranne
The Cryosphere, 17, 2455–2476, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2455-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2455-2023, 2023
Short summary
Direct measurement of warm Atlantic Intermediate Water close to the grounding line of Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden (79° N) Glacier, northeast Greenland
Michael J. Bentley, James A. Smith, Stewart S. R. Jamieson, Margaret R. Lindeman, Brice R. Rea, Angelika Humbert, Timothy P. Lane, Christopher M. Darvill, Jeremy M. Lloyd, Fiamma Straneo, Veit Helm, and David H. Roberts
The Cryosphere, 17, 1821–1837, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1821-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1821-2023, 2023
Short summary

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
Barnes, R., Lehman, C., and Mulla, D.: Priority-flood: An optimal depression-filling and watershed-labeling algorithm for digital elevation models, Comput. Geosci., 62, 117–127, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2013.04.024, 2014. a
Bernales, J., Rogozhina, I., Greve, R., and Thomas, M.: Comparison of hybrid schemes for the combination of shallow approximations in numerical simulations of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, The Cryosphere, 11, 247–265, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-247-2017, 2017. a
Calov, R., Beyer, S., Greve, R., Beckmann, J., Willeit, M., Kleiner, T., Rückamp, M., Humbert, A., and Ganopolski, A.: Simulation of the future sea level contribution of Greenland with a new glacial system model, The Cryosphere, 12, 3097–3121, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3097-2018, 2018. a, b
Clayton, L., Attig, J. W., and Mickelson, D. M.: Tunnel channels formed in Wisconsin during the last glaciation, in: Glacial Processes Past and Present, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado, USA, https://doi.org/10.1130/0-8137-2337-X.69, 1999. a
Download
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.