. Water flowing below glaciers exerts a major control on glacier basal sliding. However, our knowledge of the physics of subglacial hydrology and its link with sliding is limited because of lacking observations. Here we use a 2-year-long dataset made of on-ice-measured seismic and in situ-measured glacier basal sliding speed on Glacier d'Argentiere (French Alps) to investigate the physics of subglacial channels and its potential link with glacier basal sliding. Using dedicated theory and concomitant measurements of water discharge, we quantify temporal changes in channels' hydraulic radius and hydraulic pressure gradient. At seasonal timescales we find that hydraulic radius and hydraulic pressure gradient respectively exhibit a 2- and 6-fold increase from spring to summer, followed by comparable decrease towards autumn. At low discharge during the early and late melt season channels respond to changes in discharge mainly through changes in hydraulic radius, a regime that is consistent with predictions of channels' behaviour at equilibrium. In contrast, at high discharge and high short-term water-supply variability (summertime), channels undergo strong changes in hydraulic pressure gradient, a behaviour that is consistent with channels behaving out of equilibrium. This out-of-equilibrium regime is further supported by observations at the diurnal scale, which prove that channels pressurize in the morning and depressurize in the afternoon. During summer we also observe high and sustained basal sliding speed, which supports that the widespread inefficient drainage system (cavities) is likely pressurized concomitantly with the channel system. We propose that pressurized channels help sustain high pressure in cavities (and therefore high glacier sliding speed) through an efficient hydraulic connection between the two systems. The present findings provide an essential basis for testing the physics represented in subglacial hydrology and glacier sliding models.

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Quantification of seasonal and diurnal dynamics of subglacial channels using seismic observations on an Alpine glacier

Subglacial water flow strongly modulates glacier basal motion, which itself strongly influences the contributions of glaciers and ice sheets to sea level rise. However, our understanding of when and where subglacial water flow enhances or impedes glacier flow is limited due to the paucity of direct observations of subglacial drainage characteristics. Here, we demonstrate that dense seismic array observations combined with an innovative systematic seismic source location technique allows the retrieval of a two-dimensional map of a subglacial drainage system, as well as its day-to-day temporal evolution. We observe with unprecedented detail when and where subglacial water flows through a cavity-like system that enhances glacier flow versus when and where water mainly flows through a channel-like system that impedes glacier flow. Most importantly, we are able to identify regions of high hydraulic connectivity within and across the cavity and channel systems, which have been identified as having a major impact on the long-term glacier response to climate warming. Applying a similar seismic monitoring strategy in other glacier settings, including for ice sheets, may help to diagnose the susceptibility of their dynamics to increased meltwater input due to climate warming.

Observing the subglacial hydrology network and its dynamics with a dense seismic array

Glacier sliding has major environmental consequences, but friction caused by debris in the basal ice of glaciers is seldom considered in sliding models. To include such friction, divergent hypotheses for clast‐bed contact forces require testing. In experiments we rotate an ice ring (outside diameter = 0.9 m), with and without isolated till clasts, over a smooth rock bed. Ice is kept at its pressure‐melting temperature, and meltwater drains along a film at the bed to atmospheric pressure at its edges. The ice pressure or bed‐normal component of ice velocity is controlled, while bed shear stress is measured. Results with debris‐free ice indicate friction coefficients < 0.01. Shear stresses caused by clasts in ice are independent of ice pressure. This independence indicates that with increases in ice pressure the water pressure in cavities observed beneath clasts increases commensurately to allow drainage of cavities into the melt film, leaving clast‐bed contact forces unaffected. Shear stresses, instead, are proportional to bed‐normal ice velocity. Cavities and the absence of regelation ice indicate that, unlike model formulations, regelation past clasts does not control contact forces. Alternatively, heat from the bed melts ice above clasts, creating pressure gradients in adjacent meltwater films that cause contact forces to depend on bed‐normal ice velocity. This model can account for observations if rock friction predicated on Hertzian clast‐bed contacts is assumed. Including debris‐bed friction in glacier sliding models will require coupling the ice velocity field near the bed to contact forces rather than imposing a pressure‐based friction rule. Disciplines Atmospheric Sciences | Geophysics and Seismology | Glaciology Comments This article is published as Thompson, A. C., Iverson, N. R., & Zoet, L. K. (2020). Controls on subglacial rock friction: Experiments with debris in temperate ice. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 125, e2020JF005718. doi: 10.1029/2020JF005718. Posted with permission. This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ge_at_pubs/317 Controls on Subglacial Rock Friction: Experiments With Debris in Temperate Ice A. C. Thompson , N. R. Iverson , and L. K. Zoet Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA, Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin‐Madison, Madison, WI, USA Abstract Glacier sliding has major environmental consequences, but friction caused by debris in the basal ice of glaciers is seldom considered in slidingmodels. To include such friction, divergent hypotheses for clast‐bed contact forces require testing. In experiments we rotate an ice ring (outside diameter = 0.9 m), with and without isolated till clasts, over a smooth rock bed. Ice is kept at its pressure‐melting temperature, and meltwater drains along a film at the bed to atmospheric pressure at its edges. The ice pressure or bed‐normal component of ice velocity is controlled, while bed shear stress is measured. Results with debris‐ free ice indicate friction coefficients < 0.01. Shear stresses caused by clasts in ice are independent of ice pressure. This independence indicates that with increases in ice pressure the water pressure in cavities observed beneath clasts increases commensurately to allow drainage of cavities into the melt film, leaving clast‐bed contact forces unaffected. Shear stresses, instead, are proportional to bed‐normal ice velocity. Cavities and the absence of regelation ice indicate that, unlike model formulations, regelation past clasts does not control contact forces. Alternatively, heat from the bed melts ice above clasts, creating pressure gradients in adjacent meltwater films that cause contact forces to depend on bed‐normal ice velocity. This model can account for observations if rock friction predicated on Hertzian clast‐bed contacts is assumed. Including debris‐bed friction in glacier sliding models will require coupling the ice velocity field near the bed to contact forces rather than imposing a pressure‐based friction rule.Glacier sliding has major environmental consequences, but friction caused by debris in the basal ice of glaciers is seldom considered in slidingmodels. To include such friction, divergent hypotheses for clast‐bed contact forces require testing. In experiments we rotate an ice ring (outside diameter = 0.9 m), with and without isolated till clasts, over a smooth rock bed. Ice is kept at its pressure‐melting temperature, and meltwater drains along a film at the bed to atmospheric pressure at its edges. The ice pressure or bed‐normal component of ice velocity is controlled, while bed shear stress is measured. Results with debris‐ free ice indicate friction coefficients < 0.01. Shear stresses caused by clasts in ice are independent of ice pressure. This independence indicates that with increases in ice pressure the water pressure in cavities observed beneath clasts increases commensurately to allow drainage of cavities into the melt film, leaving clast‐bed contact forces unaffected. Shear stresses, instead, are proportional to bed‐normal ice velocity. Cavities and the absence of regelation ice indicate that, unlike model formulations, regelation past clasts does not control contact forces. Alternatively, heat from the bed melts ice above clasts, creating pressure gradients in adjacent meltwater films that cause contact forces to depend on bed‐normal ice velocity. This model can account for observations if rock friction predicated on Hertzian clast‐bed contacts is assumed. Including debris‐bed friction in glacier sliding models will require coupling the ice velocity field near the bed to contact forces rather than imposing a pressure‐based friction rule.

Controls on Subglacial Rock Friction: Experiments With Debris in Temperate Ice

The occurrence and the style of volcanic eruptions are largely controlled by the ways in which magma is stored and transported from the mantle to the surface through the crust. Nevertheless, our understanding of the deep roots of volcano-magmatic systems remains very limited. Here, we use the sources of seismovolcanic tremor to delineate the active part of the magmatic system beneath the Klyuchevskoy Volcanic Group in Kamchatka, Russia. The tremor sources are distributed in a wide spatial region over the whole range of crustal depths connecting different volcanoes of the group. The tremor activity is characterized by rapid vertical and lateral migrations explained by fast pressure transients and dynamic permeability. Our results support the conceptual model of extended and highly dynamic trans-crustal magmatic systems.

https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/sciadv.abj1571?download=true

Seismic tremor reveals active trans-crustal magmatic system beneath Kamchatka volcanoes

http://manuscript.elsevier.com/S0169555X22001416/pdf/S0169555X22001416.pdf

Formation of murtoos by repeated flooding of ribbed bedforms along subglacial meltwater corridors

Dense seismic array monitoring on glaciers combined with advanced array processing may help retrieve and locate a variety of seismic sources with unprecedented resolution and spatial coverage. Here...

Dynamic imaging of glacier structures at high-resolution using source localization: a dense seismic array experiment.

DATA of "Resolving the 2D temporal evolution of subglacial water flow with dense seismic array observations."


 <p>Theoretical laws for glacier friction over hard bedrocks rely on several assumptions. One fundamental assumption is that perfect sliding (no resistance to slip) occurs at the local scale between ice and bedrock, in which case friction only occurs at a mesoscale from ice flowing past bed irregularities - here called viscous friction. This assumption is however challenged by the numerous observations that glaciers carry debris at their basal layers, which can exert frictional resistance locally through solid-type friction between debris and rock. This is to be translated at a mesoscale as an additive frictional term to the law.<br>We study how the action of solid friction modifies the overall glacier basal friction by applying a simple effective-pressure dependant Coulomb friction law into a steady-state finite element model of a glacier over sinusoidal bedrock. We find that the viscous drag reaches the same maximum value regardless of whether there is local solid friction or not. However, we find that in the no-cavitation regime (low water pressures) the deformation-slip ratio near the bed is enhanced when solid friction occurs, although total slip is lower. As a result, the sliding parameter - ratio between viscous drag and slip - is no longer constant, as opposed to expected in a pure-sliding scenario. For high water pressures, the influence of solid friction becomes smaller and the law tends to the pure-sliding case. We propose a simple update to pure-sliding derived laws (Weertman, 1957; Fowler, 1981; Schoof, 2005; Gagliardini et al., 2007) to take into account this effect.</p>


Changes to glacier friction law due to solid friction

DATA of 'Quantification of seasonal and diurnal dynamics of subglacial channels using seismic observations on an Alpine Glacier.' from Nanni et al. 2020,

Florent Gimbert

Papers

Observing the subglacial hydrology network and its dynamics with a dense seismic array

Dynamic imaging of glacier structures at high-resolution using source localization: a dense seismic array experiment.

DATA of "Resolving the 2D temporal evolution of subglacial water flow with dense seismic array observations."

Changes to glacier friction law due to solid friction

DATA of 'Quantification of seasonal and diurnal dynamics of subglacial channels using seismic observations on an Alpine Glacier.' from Nanni et al. 2020,