Subglacial topography and geothermal heat flux: Potential interactions with drainage of the Greenland ice sheet

Many of the outlet glaciers in Greenland overlie deep and narrow trenches cut into the bedrock. It is well known that pronounced topography intensifies the geothermal heat flux in deep valleys and attenuates this flux on mountains. Here we investigate the magnitude of this effect for two subglacial...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Geophysical research letters Vol. 34; no. 12; pp. L12501 - n/a
Main Authors:	van der Veen, C. J., Leftwich, T., von Frese, R., Csatho, B. M., Li, J.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	American Geophysical Union 01-06-2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects:	Cryosphere geothermal heat glaciers Glaciology Heat flow Ice streams Planetary Sciences Solid Surface Planets Thermal regime topography PN, Greenland, Greenland Ice Sheet Greenland Greenland, Vestgroenland, Jakobshavns Isbrae glaciers geothermal heat topography
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Summary:	Many of the outlet glaciers in Greenland overlie deep and narrow trenches cut into the bedrock. It is well known that pronounced topography intensifies the geothermal heat flux in deep valleys and attenuates this flux on mountains. Here we investigate the magnitude of this effect for two subglacial trenches in Greenland. Heat flux variations are estimated for idealized geometries using solutions for plane slopes derived by Lachenbruch (1968). It is found that for channels such as the one under Jakobshavn Isbræ, topographic effects may increase the local geothermal heat flux by as much as 100%.
Bibliography:	istex:69E9A7498C6BB67FA142C488E1C90E443F417516 ark:/67375/WNG-M756T8LP-K ArticleID:2007GL030046 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0094-8276 1944-8007
DOI:	10.1029/2007GL030046