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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 34,
L12501,
5 PP., 2007
doi:10.1029/2007GL030046
Subglacial topography and geothermal heat flux: Potential interactions with drainage of the Greenland ice sheet
Department of Geography, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
School of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
School of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Department of Geology, State University of New York at Buffalo, New York, USA
Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
Many of the outlet glaciers in Greenland overlie deep and narrow trenches cut into the bedrock. It is well known that pronounced topography intensifies the geothermal heat flux in deep valleys and attenuates this flux on mountains. Here we investigate the magnitude of this effect for two subglacial trenches in Greenland. Heat flux variations are estimated for idealized geometries using solutions for plane slopes derived by Lachenbruch (1968). It is found that for channels such as the one under Jakobshavn Isbræ, topographic effects may increase the local geothermal heat flux by as much as 100%.
Received 15 March 2007; accepted 23 May 2007; published 21 June 2007.
Citation: (2007), Subglacial topography and geothermal heat flux: Potential interactions with drainage of the Greenland ice sheet, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L12501, doi:10.1029/2007GL030046.
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