Seasonal glacier motion variations and underlying hydro-mechanical processes at Glacier d'Argentière, French Alps

Togaibekov, Anuar; Gilbert, Adrien; Gimbert, Florent; Walpersdorf, Andrea

doi:10.5194/tc-20-3257-2026

Articles | Volume 20, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3257-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3257-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 6

Research article

|

02 Jun 2026

Research article |

| 02 Jun 2026

Seasonal glacier motion variations and underlying hydro-mechanical processes at Glacier d'Argentière, French Alps

Anuar Togaibekov, Adrien Gilbert, Florent Gimbert, and Andrea Walpersdorf

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3257-2026-supplement

Data sets

Sliding velocity, water discharge, water pressure, and rainfall time series at Argentière Glacier between 2019 and 2021 A. Togaibekov et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10419097

Epos-France - GPSMob data - Mission n° 20-021 - Argentiere (2020) - 2020-01-02 / 2021-01-01 - 13 points A. Walpersdorf et al. https://doi.org/10.15148/3FD58616-E0C4-4A7F-B2A9-7CF3DB4933BA

Epos-France - GPSMob data - Mission n° 20-021 - Argentiere (2020) - 2021-01-01 / 2021-12-31 - 13 points A. Walpersdorf et al. https://doi.org/10.15148/FF97D3BB-0DB2-4D21-8ABE-999A7C2565CD

Epos-France - GPSMob data - Mission n° 19-050 - Argentiere (2019) - 2019-04-02 / 2020-01-01 - 7 points A. Walpersdorf et al. https://doi.org/10.15148/744BE716-3207-4A26-BF7B-60B5FD304FFD

Ice flow velocities and uplift C. Vincent https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5536953

SmartStake SMB, air temperature, snow depth measurements at Argentière Glacier between 2019 and 2021 A. Togaibekov https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15023211

Short summary

Changes in water reaching the base of glaciers strongly affect their sliding speed by altering water pressure beneath the ice. High water pressure is often thought to develop during summer melt, enlarging cavities at the glacier base and increasing sliding speed. Our observations show instead that the cavities mainly grow during winter, when water pressure builds up in isolated cavities. As the cavities become connected during the melt season, water pressure decreases and the glacier slows down.