doi: 10.7185/geochemlet.1510 Glacial meltwater runoff is likely an important source of limiting nutrients for downstream primary producers. This has particular significance for regions surrounding the Greenland Ice Sheet, which discharges >400 km3 of meltwater annually. The Arctic is warming rapidly but the impact of higher discharge on nutrient export is unknown. We present four years of hydro...

The visual simulation of natural phenomena has been widely studied. Although several methods have been proposed to simulate melting, the flows of meltwater drops on the surfaces of objects are not taken into account. In this paper, we propose a particle-based method for the simulation of the melting and freezing of ice objects and the interactions between ice and fluids. To simulate the flow of...

Glacial meltwater systems supply the Arctic coastal ocean with large volumes of sediment and potentially bioavailable forms of iron, nitrogen and carbon. The particulate fraction of this supply is significant but estuarine losses have been thought to limit the iron supply from land. Here, our results reveal how flocculation (particle aggregation) involving labile iron may increase horizontal tr...

Snow friction results from a mixture of processes. With little meltwater present, the surfaces are partially separated and, when too much water is present, the contact area increases and there may be capillary attachments. Slider thermal conductivity and even colour are very important. Heat is generated by friction and solar radiation absorbtion and is conducted away by both slider and ice part...

Oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in snow were measured in weekly profiles during the growth and decline of a sloped subalpine snowpack, southern Idaho, 2011–2012. Isotopic steps (10‰, δO; 80‰, δD) were preserved relative to physical markers throughout the season, albeit with some diffusive smoothing. Melting stripped off upper layers without shifting isotopes within the snowpack. Meltwater is in is...

The contribution of the Greenland ice sheet to sea-level rise has accelerated in recent decades. Subglacial lake drainage events can induce an ice sheet dynamic response--a process that has been observed in Antarctica, but not yet in Greenland, where the presence of subglacial lakes has only recently been discovered. Here we investigate the water flow paths from a subglacial lake, which drained...

Simulations of the Greenland Ice Sheet are carried out with a high-resolution version of the ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS for several global-warming scenarios for the period 1990–2350. In particular, the impact of surface-meltwater-induced acceleration of basal sliding on the stability of the ice sheet is investigated. A parameterization for the acceleration effect is developed for which modelled ...

Elucidating the source(s) of Meltwater Pulse 1a, the largest rapid sea level rise caused by ice melt (14-18 m in less than 340 years, 14,600 years ago), is important for understanding mechanisms of rapid ice melt and the links with abrupt climate change. Here we quantify how much and by what mechanisms the North American ice sheet could have contributed to Meltwater Pulse 1a, by driving an ice ...

The recent decades of accelerating mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet have arisen from an increase in both surface meltwater runoff and ice flow discharge from tidewater glaciers. Despite the role of the Greenland ice sheet as the dominant individual cryospheric contributor to sea level rise in recent decades, no observational record of its mass loss spans the 30-year period needed to assess ...