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Diurnal Water-Pressure Fluctuations: Timing And Pattern Of Termination Below Bench Glacier, Alaska, Usa, T. J. Fudge, Joel T. Harper, Neil Humphrey, W. Tad Pfeffer

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Observations from basal water-pressure sensors along the length of Bench Glacier, Alaska, USA, show that diurnal fluctuations of water pressure are seasonal and restricted to summer. Most notable about these fluctuations is their disappearance in the late summer and early autumn, long before the seasonal end of diurnal meltwater input. Here we present data documenting the end of diurnal water-pressure fluctuations during the 2002 and 2003 melt seasons. The end of diurnal fluctuations occurred abruptly in multiple boreholes spaced meters to kilometers apart. There was no obvious spatial progression of termination events, and a clear correlation with meteorological forcing or …