Proglacial Lakes Control Glacier Geometry and Behavior During Recession

J. L. Sutherland; J. L. Carrivick; N. Gandy; J. Shulmeister; D. J. Quincey; S. L. Cornford

doi:10.1029/2020GL088865

Proglacial Lakes Control Glacier Geometry and Behavior During Recession

J. L. Sutherland^*
, J. L. Carrivick
, N. Gandy
, J. Shulmeister
, D. J. Quincey
, S. L. Cornford

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Geographical Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

94 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Ice-contact proglacial lakes are generally absent from numerical model simulations of glacier evolution, and their effects on ice dynamics and on rates of deglaciation remain poorly quantified. Using the BISICLES ice flow model, we analyzed the effects of an ice-contact lake on the Pukaki Glacier, New Zealand, during recession from the Last Glacial Maximum. The ice-contact lake produced a maximum effect on grounding line recession >4 times further and on ice velocities up to 8 times faster, compared to simulations of a land-terminating glacier forced by the same climate. The lake contributed up to 82% of cumulative grounding line recession and 87% of ice velocity during the first 300 years of the simulations, but those values decreased to just 6% and 37%, respectively, after 5,000 years. Numerical models that ignore lake interactions will, therefore, misrepresent the rate of recession especially during the transition of a land-terminating to a lake-terminating environment.

Original language	English
Article number	e2020GL088865
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	47
Issue number	19
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088865
Publication status	Published - 16 Oct 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
J. L. S. and N. G. were funded by PhD studentships from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) SPHERES Doctoral Training Partnership (NE/L002574/1). N. G. was also supported by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Project MR/S016961/1. J. L. S. acknowledges funding from The Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust. This work was undertaken on ARC3, which is part of the High-Performance Computing facilities at the University of Leeds, UK. J. L. S. thanks Richard Rigby for help in installing BISICLES and for his continuous and excellent IT support. William James is thanked for the New Zealand LGM ice extent and bed topography. Trevor Chinn is thanked for insightful discussions on glacier-lake interactions. This study did not use any new data. We thank Ann Rowan and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments that improved the manuscript.

Funding Information:
J. L. S. and N. G. were funded by PhD studentships from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) SPHERES Doctoral Training Partnership (NE/L002574/1). N. G. was also supported by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Project MR/S016961/1. J. L. S. acknowledges funding from The Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust. This work was undertaken on ARC3, which is part of the High‐Performance Computing facilities at the University of Leeds, UK. J. L. S. thanks Richard Rigby for help in installing BISICLES and for his continuous and excellent IT support. William James is thanked for the New Zealand LGM ice extent and bed topography. Trevor Chinn is thanked for insightful discussions on glacier‐lake interactions. This study did not use any new data. We thank Ann Rowan and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments that improved the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
©2020. The Authors.

Research Groups and Themes

Bristol Glaciology Centre

Keywords

Ice Dynamics
Ice Sheet Model
Last Glacial Maximum
New Zealand
Proglacial Lake

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Cite this

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title = "Proglacial Lakes Control Glacier Geometry and Behavior During Recession",

abstract = "Ice-contact proglacial lakes are generally absent from numerical model simulations of glacier evolution, and their effects on ice dynamics and on rates of deglaciation remain poorly quantified. Using the BISICLES ice flow model, we analyzed the effects of an ice-contact lake on the Pukaki Glacier, New Zealand, during recession from the Last Glacial Maximum. The ice-contact lake produced a maximum effect on grounding line recession >4 times further and on ice velocities up to 8 times faster, compared to simulations of a land-terminating glacier forced by the same climate. The lake contributed up to 82\% of cumulative grounding line recession and 87\% of ice velocity during the first 300 years of the simulations, but those values decreased to just 6\% and 37\%, respectively, after 5,000 years. Numerical models that ignore lake interactions will, therefore, misrepresent the rate of recession especially during the transition of a land-terminating to a lake-terminating environment.",

keywords = "Ice Dynamics, Ice Sheet Model, Last Glacial Maximum, New Zealand, Proglacial Lake",

author = "Sutherland, \{J. L.\} and Carrivick, \{J. L.\} and N. Gandy and J. Shulmeister and Quincey, \{D. J.\} and Cornford, \{S. L.\}",

note = "Funding Information: J. L. S. and N. G. were funded by PhD studentships from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) SPHERES Doctoral Training Partnership (NE/L002574/1). N. G. was also supported by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Project MR/S016961/1. J. L. S. acknowledges funding from The Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust. This work was undertaken on ARC3, which is part of the High-Performance Computing facilities at the University of Leeds, UK. J. L. S. thanks Richard Rigby for help in installing BISICLES and for his continuous and excellent IT support. William James is thanked for the New Zealand LGM ice extent and bed topography. Trevor Chinn is thanked for insightful discussions on glacier-lake interactions. This study did not use any new data. We thank Ann Rowan and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments that improved the manuscript. Funding Information: J. L. S. and N. G. were funded by PhD studentships from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) SPHERES Doctoral Training Partnership (NE/L002574/1). N. G. was also supported by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Project MR/S016961/1. J. L. S. acknowledges funding from The Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust. This work was undertaken on ARC3, which is part of the High‐Performance Computing facilities at the University of Leeds, UK. J. L. S. thanks Richard Rigby for help in installing BISICLES and for his continuous and excellent IT support. William James is thanked for the New Zealand LGM ice extent and bed topography. Trevor Chinn is thanked for insightful discussions on glacier‐lake interactions. This study did not use any new data. We thank Ann Rowan and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments that improved the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright}2020. The Authors.",

year = "2020",

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doi = "10.1029/2020GL088865",

language = "English",

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journal = "Geophysical Research Letters",

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AU - Sutherland, J. L.

AU - Carrivick, J. L.

AU - Gandy, N.

AU - Shulmeister, J.

AU - Quincey, D. J.

AU - Cornford, S. L.

N1 - Funding Information: J. L. S. and N. G. were funded by PhD studentships from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) SPHERES Doctoral Training Partnership (NE/L002574/1). N. G. was also supported by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Project MR/S016961/1. J. L. S. acknowledges funding from The Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust. This work was undertaken on ARC3, which is part of the High-Performance Computing facilities at the University of Leeds, UK. J. L. S. thanks Richard Rigby for help in installing BISICLES and for his continuous and excellent IT support. William James is thanked for the New Zealand LGM ice extent and bed topography. Trevor Chinn is thanked for insightful discussions on glacier-lake interactions. This study did not use any new data. We thank Ann Rowan and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments that improved the manuscript. Funding Information: J. L. S. and N. G. were funded by PhD studentships from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) SPHERES Doctoral Training Partnership (NE/L002574/1). N. G. was also supported by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Project MR/S016961/1. J. L. S. acknowledges funding from The Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust. This work was undertaken on ARC3, which is part of the High‐Performance Computing facilities at the University of Leeds, UK. J. L. S. thanks Richard Rigby for help in installing BISICLES and for his continuous and excellent IT support. William James is thanked for the New Zealand LGM ice extent and bed topography. Trevor Chinn is thanked for insightful discussions on glacier‐lake interactions. This study did not use any new data. We thank Ann Rowan and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments that improved the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: ©2020. The Authors.

PY - 2020/10/16

Y1 - 2020/10/16

N2 - Ice-contact proglacial lakes are generally absent from numerical model simulations of glacier evolution, and their effects on ice dynamics and on rates of deglaciation remain poorly quantified. Using the BISICLES ice flow model, we analyzed the effects of an ice-contact lake on the Pukaki Glacier, New Zealand, during recession from the Last Glacial Maximum. The ice-contact lake produced a maximum effect on grounding line recession >4 times further and on ice velocities up to 8 times faster, compared to simulations of a land-terminating glacier forced by the same climate. The lake contributed up to 82% of cumulative grounding line recession and 87% of ice velocity during the first 300 years of the simulations, but those values decreased to just 6% and 37%, respectively, after 5,000 years. Numerical models that ignore lake interactions will, therefore, misrepresent the rate of recession especially during the transition of a land-terminating to a lake-terminating environment.

AB - Ice-contact proglacial lakes are generally absent from numerical model simulations of glacier evolution, and their effects on ice dynamics and on rates of deglaciation remain poorly quantified. Using the BISICLES ice flow model, we analyzed the effects of an ice-contact lake on the Pukaki Glacier, New Zealand, during recession from the Last Glacial Maximum. The ice-contact lake produced a maximum effect on grounding line recession >4 times further and on ice velocities up to 8 times faster, compared to simulations of a land-terminating glacier forced by the same climate. The lake contributed up to 82% of cumulative grounding line recession and 87% of ice velocity during the first 300 years of the simulations, but those values decreased to just 6% and 37%, respectively, after 5,000 years. Numerical models that ignore lake interactions will, therefore, misrepresent the rate of recession especially during the transition of a land-terminating to a lake-terminating environment.

KW - Ice Dynamics

KW - Ice Sheet Model

KW - Last Glacial Maximum

KW - New Zealand

KW - Proglacial Lake

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85092459669

U2 - 10.1029/2020GL088865

DO - 10.1029/2020GL088865

M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

AN - SCOPUS:85092459669

SN - 0094-8276

VL - 47

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

IS - 19

M1 - e2020GL088865

ER -

Proglacial Lakes Control Glacier Geometry and Behavior During Recession

Abstract

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Keywords

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