Articles | Volume 17, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-195-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-195-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Geothermal heat flux is the dominant source of uncertainty in englacial-temperature-based dating of ice rise formation
Aleksandr Montelli
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA
Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Jonathan Kingslake
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA
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Outburst floods are sudden releases of water from glacial environments. As glaciers retreat, changes in glacier and basin geometry impact outburst flood characteristics. We combine a glacier flow model describing glacier retreat with an outburst flood model to explore how ice dam height, glacier length, and remnant ice in a basin influence outburst floods. We find storage capacity is the greatest indicator of flood magnitude, and the flood onset mechanism is a significant indicator of duration.
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Short summary
Thermal modelling and Bayesian inversion techniques are used to evaluate the uncertainties inherent in inferences of ice-sheet evolution from borehole temperature measurements. We show that the same temperature profiles may result from a range of parameters, of which geothermal heat flux through underlying bedrock plays a key role. Careful model parameterisation and evaluation of heat flux are essential for inferring past ice-sheet evolution from englacial borehole thermometry.
Thermal modelling and Bayesian inversion techniques are used to evaluate the uncertainties...