BH research at Sermeq Kujalleq

Research at Sermeq Kujalleq (Store Glacier), Greenland

Mobirise Website Builder

Research overview

Collaborating with Poul Christoffersen (Cambridge University), we drilled 15 boreholes at three sites located ~30 km up-glacier from the marine terminus of fast-moving Sermeq Kujalleq, Greenland. These boreholes were drilled to depths of 550 - 1,100 m, almost all of which reached the (temperate) ice-bed interface. Upon intersecting the bed all boreholes 'drained' over some seconds to leave their water level some tens of m below the ice surface - indicating they had successfully established an open hydraulic connection to the local basal drainage system.

Boreholes were instrumented to measure various physical properties including: logging by OPTV, installation and long-term logging of basal water-quality multiprobes (recording electrical conductivity, pressure, temperature, and turbidity), installation and long-term logging of thermistor and tilt strings and, in 2019, installation and on-site logging of distributed temperature and acoustic disturbance along fibre-optic cables. These borehole data were supplemented by surface ApRES, GNSS and meteorological data to improve our understanding of hydro-mechanical processes and basal coupling at fast-moving outlet glaciers.

Funding:
Natural Environment Research Council: SAFIRE Project, 2012 - 2015
European Research Council: RESPONDER Project, 2016 - 2022

Mobirise Website Builder

Publications

Booth, A.D., P. Christoffersen, C. Schoonman, A. Clarke, B. Hubbard, R. Law, S.H. Doyle, T.R. Chudley and A. Chalari 2020. Distributed acoustic sensing of seismic properties in a borehole drilled on a fast-flowing Greenlandic outlet glacier. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(13): e2020GL088148.

Chudley, T.R., P. Christoffersen, S.H. Doyle, M. Bougamont, C.M. Schoonman, B. Hubbard and M.R. James 2019. Supraglacial lake drainage at a fast-flowing Greenlandic outlet glacier. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 201913685.

Chudley, T.R., P. Christoffersen, S.H. Doyle, T.P.F. Dowling, R. Law, C.M. Schoonman, M. Bougamont and B. Hubbard 2021. Controls on Water Storage and Drainage in Crevasses on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 126(9): e2021JF006287.

Doyle, S.H., B. Hubbard, P. Christoffersen, R. Law, D.R. Hewitt, J.A. Neufeld, C.M. Schoonman, T.R. Chudley and M. Bougamont 2021. Water flow through sediments and at the ice-sediment interface beneath Sermeq Kujalleq (Store Glacier), Greenland. Journal of Glaciology: 1-20.

Doyle, S.H., B. Hubbard, P. Christoffersen, T.J. Young, C. Hofstede, M. Bougamont, J.E. Box and A. Hubbard 2018. Physical Conditions of Fast Glacier Flow: 1. Measurements From Boreholes Drilled to the Bed of Store Glacier, West Greenland. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 123.

Hofstede, C., P. Christoffersen, B. Hubbard, S.H. Doyle, T.J. Young, A. Diez, O. Eisen and A. Hubbard 2018. Physical Conditions of Fast Glacier Flow: 2. Variable Extent of Anisotropic Ice and Soft Basal Sediment From Seismic Reflection Data Acquired on Store Glacier, West Greenland. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 123.

Hubbard, B., P. Christoffersen, S.H. Doyle, T.R. Chudley, C.M. Schoonman, R. Law and M. Bougamont 2021. Borehole-Based Characterization of Deep Mixed-Mode Crevasses at a Greenlandic Outlet Glacier. AGU Advances, 2(2): e2020AV000291.

Kendrick, A.K., D.M. Schroeder, W. Chu, T.J. Young, P. Christoffersen, J. Todd, S.H. Doyle, J.E. Box, A. Hubbard, B. Hubbard, P.V. Brennan, K.W. Nicholls and L.B. Lok 2018. Surface Meltwater Impounded by Seasonal Englacial Storage in West Greenland. Geophysical Research Letters, 45(19).

Law, R., P. Christoffersen, B. Hubbard, S.H. Doyle, T.R. Chudley, C.M. Schoonman, M. Bougamont, B. des Tombe, B. Schilperoort, C. Kechavarzi, A. Booth and T.J. Young 2021. Thermodynamics of a fast-moving Greenlandic outlet glacier revealed by fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing. Science Advances, 7(20): eabe7136.

Young, T.J., P. Christoffersen, M. Bougamont, S.M. Tulaczyk, B. Hubbard, K.D. Mankoff, K.W. Nicholls and C.L. Stewart 2022. Rapid basal melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet from surface meltwater drainage. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(10): e2116036119.

Young, T.J., P. Christoffersen, S.H. Doyle, K.W. Nicholls, C.L. Stewart, B. Hubbard, A. Hubbard, L.B. Lok, P.V. Brennan, D.I. Benn, A. Luckman and M. Bougamont 2019. Physical Conditions of Fast Glacier Flow: 3. Seasonally-Evolving Ice Deformation on Store Glacier, West Greenland. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 124.

Go back to Homepage

Email Bryn

Made with ‌

HTML Code Creator