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Changing Contribution of Peak Velocity Events to Annual Velocities Following a Multi-decadal Slowdown at White Glacier

Resource type
Date created
2018-02-12
Authors/Contributors
Abstract
As the focus of intensive glaciological studies in the 1960–70s, White Glacier on Axel Heiberg Island, Canada, has played an important role in understanding the dynamics of mostly-cold polythermal glaciers in the high Arctic. In this study, we examine the magnitude, duration and timing of peak velocity events in the summers of 2013–15 using continuous dual-frequency GPS observations, and compare them with similar measurements made in 1968. Summer speed-up events in 1968 and 2014, in which ice velocities reached 200% above winter values, were found to occur in conjunction with formation and drainage of an ice-marginal lake. Despite thinning of the glacier by >20 m and a decrease in annual surface velocities of 15–35% since the 1960s, the relative magnitude and duration of these peak events has increased, particularly at lower elevations, in comparison with the observations at the same locations many decades ago. Given the long-term slowdown of the glacier, the relative contribution of summer displacement to the net annual motion has therefore increased significantly, with summer motion over the span of <2 months now accounting for nearly half of the total annual displacement.
Document
Published as
Thomson, L., & Copland, L. (July 2017). Changing contribution of peak velocity events to annual velocities following a multi-decadal slowdown at White Glacier. Annals of Glaciology, 58(75pt2), 145-154. DOI: 10.1017/aog.2017.46.
Publication title
Annals of Glaciology
Document title
Changing Contribution of Peak Velocity Events to Annual Velocities Following a Multi-decadal Slowdown at White Glacier
Date
2017
Volume
58
Issue
75
First page
145
Last page
154
Publisher DOI
10.1017/aog.2017.46
Copyright statement
Copyright is held by the author(s).
Scholarly level
Peer reviewed?
Yes
Language
English
Member of collection

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