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Glaciology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2011

Polar region

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Glaciology

Glacimarine Sedimentation Processes At Kronebreen And Kongsvegen, Svalbard, Laura M. Kehrl, Robert L. Hawley, Ross D. Powell, Julie Brigham-Grette Jun 2011

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 …


Microstructural Evolution Of Fine-Grained Layers Through The Firn Column At Summit, Greenland, R. Lomonaco, M. Albert, I. Baker Jan 2011

Microstructural Evolution Of Fine-Grained Layers Through The Firn Column At Summit, Greenland, R. Lomonaco, M. Albert, I. Baker

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present a microstructural characterization of fine-grained layers from the top 90 m of firn from Summit, Greenland, performed using a combination of scanning electron microscopy techniques including secondary electron imaging, energy-dispersive spectroscopy and electron backscattered patterns, and X-ray microcomputed tomography. The impurities in the firn, both soluble impurities and dust particles, were found largely in the grain interiors. Both c- and a-axis pole figures do not show strong evidence of a preferred orientation of the grains even at the bottom of the firn column. The firn structure became increasingly anisotropic with vertical alignment in the top 3 m, probably …