Articles | Volume 15, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2021-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2021-2021
Research article
 | 
23 Apr 2021
Research article |  | 23 Apr 2021

Evolution of the firn pack of Kaskawulsh Glacier, Yukon: meltwater effects, densification, and the development of a perennial firn aquifer

Naomi E. Ochwat, Shawn J. Marshall, Brian J. Moorman, Alison S. Criscitiello, and Luke Copland

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Revised manuscript accepted for TC
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Cited articles

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Bell, C., Mair, D., Burgess, D., Sharp, M., Demuth, M., Cawkwell, F., Bingham, R., and Wadham, J.: Spatial and temporal variability in the snowpack of a High Arctic ice cap: implications for mass-change measurements, Ann. Glaciol., 48, 159–170, https://doi.org/10.3189/172756408784700725, 2008. 
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Bezeau, P., Sharp, M., Burgess, D., and Gascon, G.: Firn profile changes in response to extreme 21st-century melting at Devon Ice Cap, Nunavut, Canada, J. Glaciol., 59, 981–991, https://doi.org/10.3189/2013JoG12J208, 2013. 
Christianson, K., Kohler, J., Alley, R. B., Nuth, C., and Van Pelt, W. J. J.: Dynamic perennial firn aquifer on an Arctic glacier, Geophys. Res. Lett., 42, 1418–1426, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL062806, 2015. 
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In May 2018 we drilled into Kaskawulsh Glacier to study how it is being affected by climate warming and used models to investigate the evolution of the firn since the 1960s. We found that the accumulation zone has experienced increased melting that has refrozen as ice layers and has formed a perennial firn aquifer. These results better inform climate-induced changes on northern glaciers and variables to take into account when estimating glacier mass change using remote-sensing methods.