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- Liljedahl, Lillemor Claesson, et al.
(författare)
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Rapid and sensitive response of Greenland’s groundwater system to ice sheet change
- 2021
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Ingår i: Nature Geoscience. - : Springer Nature. - 1752-0894 .- 1752-0908. ; 14:10, s. 751-755
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Greenland Ice Sheet mass loss is impacting connected terrestrial and marine hydrologic systems with global consequences. Groundwater is a key component of water cycling in the Arctic, underlying the 1.7e6 km2 ice sheet and forming offshore freshwater reserves. However, despite its vast extent, the response of Greenland’s groundwater to ongoing ice sheet change is unknown. Here we present in-situ observations of deep groundwater conditions under the Greenland Ice Sheet, obtained in a 651-metre-long proglacial bedrock borehole angled under the ice sheet margin. We find that Greenland’s groundwater system responds rapidly and sensitively to relatively minor ice sheet forcing. Hydraulic head clearly varies over multi-annual, seasonal and diurnal timescales, which we interpret as a response to fluid pressure forcing at the ice/bed interface associated with changes in overlying ice loading and ice sheet hydrology. We find a systematic decline in hydraulic head over the eight-year observational period is linked primarily to ice sheet mass loss. Ongoing and future ice thinning will probably reduce groundwater discharge rates, with potential impacts to submarine freshwater discharge, freshwater delivery to fjords and biogeochemical fluxes in the Arctic.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Ruskeeniemi, Timo, et al.
(författare)
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Subglacial permafrost evidencing re-advance of the Greenland Ice Sheet over frozen ground
- 2018
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Ingår i: Quaternary Science Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-3791 .- 1873-457X. ; 199, s. 174-187
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) covers an area of 1.7 million km(2). It has been an important source of climate information and the air temperature history of Greenland is well known. However, the thermal history and temperature conditions of the Greenland bedrock are poorly known. There are only few records on the temperature of the proglacial bedrock and no records on bedrock temperature underneath the ice sheet. The Greenland Analogue Project (GAP) recently investigated hydrological, hydrogeological and geochemical processes in Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland. Because permafrost has a major hydrological impact in Arctic regions, the cryogenic structure of the bedrock was an important research topic. From previous studies it was already known that Kangerlussuaq is located within the zone of continuous permafrost. Temperature profiling in a new research borehole, extending horizontally 30 m underneath the ice sheet, revealed that permafrost is 350 m deep at the ice margin. This result raised the question how far the permafrost extends under the ice sheet? In order to investigate the thermal properties, we made a series of electromagnetic (EM) soundings at the ice margin area - on proglacial area and on the ice sheet - and detected, that subglacial permafrost extends at least 2 km from the ice margin to inland. We also observed a patchy unfrozen sediment layer between the ice and the frozen bedrock. Possible existence of subglacial sediments and their role in ice dynamics has been debated in many recent papers. Our successful campaign shows that geophysics can be used for bedrock investigations through thick ice, which is known to be challenging for electromagnetic methods. Our results provide the first direct evidence supporting the proposed Holocene ice re-advance over frozen ground, and contribute to the discussion on the rapid climate changes in past, to the future of the ice sheet under warming climate and hydrogeology at the ice margin.
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