the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
A conceptual model for glacial lake bathymetric distribution
Taigang Zhang
Weicai Wang
Baosheng An
Abstract. The formation and expansion of glacial lakes worldwide due to global warming and glacier retreat have been well documented in the past few decades. Thousands of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) originating from moraine-dammed and ice-dammed lakes were reported, causing devastating impacts on downstream lives and properties. Detailed glacial lake bathymetry surveys are essential for accurate GLOF simulation and risk assessment. However, these bathymetry surveys are still scarce as glacial lakes located in remote and high-altitude environments hamper a comprehensive investigation. We developed a conceptual model for glacial lake bathymetric distribution using a semi-automatic simulation procedure. The basic idea is that the statistical glacial lake volume-area curves conform to a power-law relationship indicating that the idealized geometric shape of the glacial lake basin should be hemispheres or cones. First, by reviewing the evolution of various types of glacial lakes, we identified 10 standard conceptual models to describe the shape of lake basins. Second, we defined a general conceptual model to depict the continuum transitions between different standard conceptual models for those specific glacial lakes that lie between two standard conceptual models. Third, we nested the conceptual model into the actual glacial lake basin to construct the water depth contours and interpolate the glacial lake bathymetric distribution. We applied the conceptual model to simulate three typical glacial lakes in the Tibetan Plateau with in-situ bathymetric surveys to verify the algorithm's applicability. The results show a high consistency in the point-to-point comparisons of the measured and simulated water depths with a total volume difference of approximately ±10 %. The conceptual model has significant implications for understanding glacial lake evolution and modeling GLOFs in the future.
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Taigang Zhang et al.
Status: open (until 19 Apr 2023)
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CC1: 'Comment on tc-2023-12', D. Fortier, 22 Feb 2023
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Good day,
Interesting paper. You might want to have a look at this Cryosphere paper recently published about glaial thermokarst lakes. I hope it can be useful.
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/2837/2022/tc-16-2837-2022-assets.html
Best regards
Daniel Fortier, professor
University of Montreal
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2023-12-CC1 -
CC2: 'Reply on CC1', Taigang Zhang, 24 Feb 2023
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Dear Prof. Daniel Fortier,
Thank you very much for the recommended paper on glacial thermokarst lakes. We have carefully read the paper and found it is very useful. The thermokarst lake initiation and development were systematically presented. One of the most impressive conclusions is "the melting of ice wedges and intrasedimental material initiated the formation of the shallow lakes (<5m), while the melting of buried glacier ice has triggered the inception of the deeper lakes (>5m, up to 12m) in the study area". The reseasch about lake formation mechanism is vital for further relevant model developments and various projections.
Our manuscript presented a conceptual model for glacial lake bathymetric distribution which thanks to an understanding of the evolutionary mechanism of the glacial lake. We highlight a glacial lake that grow behind the terminal moraine or on the glacier surface due to the contemporary glacier retreating and melting, rather than a thermokarst lake. Hence, when we collected the glacial lake bathymetry data, we have not included those thermokarst lakes. As we discussed in section 4.2, the designed conceptual model could be more suitable for those glacial lakes with typically lengthy shapes, while may be less applicable for very irregularly shaped glacial lakes (and also thermokarst lakes), such as the ice-marginal lakes in the Greenland and Alaska region. We will appropriately cited the paper and discuss a little bit more on the model applicability in the subsequent revised versions.
Best wishes,
Taigang Zhang
on behalf of co-authorsCitation: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2023-12-CC2
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CC2: 'Reply on CC1', Taigang Zhang, 24 Feb 2023
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Taigang Zhang et al.
Taigang Zhang et al.
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