Nature Communications (Dec 2016)

Greenland subglacial drainage evolution regulated by weakly connected regions of the bed

  • Matthew J. Hoffman,
  • Lauren C. Andrews,
  • Stephen F. Price,
  • Ginny A. Catania,
  • Thomas A. Neumann,
  • Martin P. Lüthi,
  • Jason Gulley,
  • Claudia Ryser,
  • Robert L. Hawley,
  • Blaine Morriss

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13903
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

Read online

Surface meltwater draining to the bed of the Greenland Ice Sheet each summer causes ice flow changes inconsistent with the prevailing theory of channelizing subglacial drainage. Here, the authors show this is caused by limited, gradual leakage of water from previously ignored weakly connected regions of the bed.