Glaciology Commons^™

Glacimarine Sedimentation Processes At Kronebreen And Kongsvegen, Svalbard, Laura M. Kehrl, Robert L. Hawley, Ross D. Powell, Julie Brigham-Grette

Dartmouth Scholarship

Tidewater glaciers deposit sediment at their terminus, thereby reducing the relative water depth. Reduced water depth can lead to increased glacier stability through decreased rates of iceberg calving, glacier thinning and submarine melting. Here we investigate sedimentation processes at the termini of Kronebreen and Kongsvegen, Svalbard. We mapped the fjord floor bathymetry in August 2009 and calculate sedimentation rates based on our bathymetry and that from a similar study in 2005. A grounding-line fan is developing near the current position of the subglacial stream. An older, abandoned grounding-line fan that likely formed between ~1987 and 2001 is degrading near the …