Articles | Volume 19, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1513-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1513-2025
Research article
 | 
04 Apr 2025
Research article |  | 04 Apr 2025

Long-term development of a perennial firn aquifer on the Lomonosovfonna ice cap, Svalbard

Tim van den Akker, Ward van Pelt, Rickard Petterson, and Veijo A. Pohjola

Data sets

Terrengmodell Svalbard (S0 Terrengmodell) Norwegian Polar Institute https://doi.org/10.21334/npolar.2014.dce53a47

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Short summary
Liquid water can persist within old snow on glaciers and ice caps if it can percolate into the snow before it refreezes. Snow is a good insulator, and it is porous where the percolated water can be stored. If this happens, the water piles up and forms a groundwater-like system. Here, we show observations of such a groundwater-like system found in Svalbard. We demonstrate that it behaves like a groundwater system and use that to model the development of the water table from 1957 until the present day.
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