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Hydrological characteristics of the drainage system beneath a surging glacier

Nature volume 395, pages 771–774 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

A rare combination of natural circumstances permits assessment of current theories on water flow beneath glaciers. Outburst floods from the subglacial lake Grímsvötn in Iceland took place before, during and after surging of Skei∂arárjökull, the glacier beneath which the outburst floods drain. The observable drainage patterns associated with these floods show the different nature of the basal water conduit system of the glacier during surge and non-surge phases. During surge conditions, basal water is dispersed slowly across the bed in a distributed drainage system; but when the glacier is not surging, water is transported rapidly through a system of tunnels.

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Figure 1: Geographical setting and the progress of the surge of Skeiðarárjökull in 1991.
Figure 2: Drainage of outburst flood water during the surge of Skeiðarárjökull.
Figure 3: Swift draining of glacier outburst flood water from the Grímsvötn lake and from beneath Skeiðarárjökull after its 1991 surge.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by The Research Fund of the University of Iceland, the Icelandic Road Authority and the National Power Company of Iceland. I thank B. Kamb for critically reading the manuscript, and my colleague M. Karlsson for assistance with the writing and presentation.

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  1. Science Intitute, University of Iceland, Dunhaga, IS-107 3, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Helgi Björnsson

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  1. Helgi Björnsson
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Correspondence to Helgi Björnsson.

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Björnsson, H. Hydrological characteristics of the drainage system beneath a surging glacier. Nature 395, 771–774 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/27384

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