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Widespread partial-depth hydrofractures in ice sheets driven by supraglacial streams

Nature Geoscience volume 16, pages 605–611 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Dramatic supraglacial lake drainage events in Greenland and Antarctica are enabled by rapid hydrofracture propagation through ice over 1 km thick. Here we present a slower mode of hydrofracture, where hairline surface fractures intersect supraglacial streams, and hypothesize that penetration depth is critically limited by water supply and englacial refreezing. We develop a model of stream-fed hydrofracture, and find that under most conditions in Greenland, 2-cm-wide fractures can penetrate hundreds of metres before freezing closed. Conditions for full-depth hydrofracture are more restricted, requiring larger meltwater channels and/or warm englacial conditions. Given the abundance of streams and surface fractures across Greenland and Antarctica’s expanding ablation zones, we propose that stream-driven hydrofractures are ubiquitous—even where distant from supraglacial lakes and crevasse fields. This intriguing process remains undetectable by current satellite remote sensing, yet has two major impacts that warrant further investigation. First, by driving widespread cryohydrologic warming at depths far greater than surface crevassing, it explains a consistent cold bias in modelled englacial thermal profiles. Second, the associated reduction in ice viscosity and increased damage accumulation act to enhance the vulnerability of ice sheets and shelves to dynamic instability as supraglacial drainage networks expand inland to higher elevations.

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Fig. 1: Locations and temperature profiles of case studies in Greenland.
Fig. 2: Schematic showing key components of our model.
Fig. 3: Temporal evolution of fracture propagation and ice accretion.
Fig. 4: Maximum ice accretion thickness in fractures propagating to the bed.
Fig. 5: Englacial warming due to latent heat released by stream-driven hydrofractures.

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Data availability

MAR v3.11.2 data were downloaded from ftp://ftp.climato.be/fettweis/.MARv3.11.2/ (last access: 24 June 2022).

Code availability

Python scripts for the fracture propagation model are available at https://github.com/davemchandler/SupraglacialStreamFractures or on request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

D.C. acknowledges support for fieldwork from UK NERC grant NE/H023879/1. A.H. gratefully acknowledges an Arctic Five Chair, funding from the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence scheme (CAGE & IC3 - Grants 223259 & 332635), The University of Oulu - Arctic Interactions and the Academy of Finland PROFI4 initative (Grant 318930). Field observations were kindly supported by The Royal Geographical Society (Walters Kundert Fellowship), the Greenland Analogue Project (GAP-SPB), Lars Ostenfeld/Caspar Haarløv (‘Into the Ice’) and James Reed/Ted Giffords (BBC ‘Frozen Planet II’).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway

    David M. Chandler

  2. IC3 - Centre for Ice, Cryosphere, Carbon & Climate, Institutt for Geovitenskap, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, N-9037, Norway

    Alun Hubbard

  3. Geography Research Unit, Oulun yliopisto, Oulu, F-90570, Finland

    Alun Hubbard

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  1. David M. Chandler
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  2. Alun Hubbard
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D.C. developed the model; both authors contributed to writing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to David M. Chandler or Alun Hubbard.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Active hydrofracture and moulin genesis where surface fractures intersected a supraglacial river.

This site is on the K-Transect, West Greenland (67.124∘N 49.298∘W, ice thickness ~ 1265 m61,62). The site is close to Isunguata Sermia (labeled IS S5 in Fig. 1). Left: photo taken on 18 July 2019 when the fracture was observed to open with the onset of moulin formation and active stream interception. Right: photo taken on 25 July 2019, when the moulin had fully developed, and captured all supraglacial river discharge in an act of rapid glaciofluvial piracy. Red dashes show the approximate orientation of the surface fractures. Although this specific case is for a channel larger than the maximum considered in our model experiments, it nevertheless demonstrates that full depth hydrofracture is possible from supraglacial stream interception even through thick ( > 1200 m) ice - consistent with a tendency towards increasing likelihood as channel radius rc increases in Fig. 4. The rate of development also demonstrates that enlargement of the fracture below the stream by viscous heat dissipation - as considered in our ’fast’ model - is a potent process that rapidly accelerates stream capture.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Fracture zone and moulin development at Leverett Catchment site L41 (ice thickness ~ 800 to 900 m).

The site is close to Isunguata Sermia (labeled IS S5 in Fig. 1). Here a period of audible fracturing commenced on 3 June 2012, associated with seasonal ice flow acceleration as described by Chandler et al.13. Left: The fracture zone developed on 3 June and extended over 1 km across-flow. Photo taken 23 June 2012; auger is ~ 1 m tall. Right: Moulin L41A, which developed on the same fracture zone. Photo taken 13 June 2012, approximately 10 days after fracturing. Diurnal variations in stream discharge were typically 3 to 8 m3 s−113.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Stream capture and moulin development close to the margin in the Leverett catchment (ice thickness ~ 400 m).

Here stream capture lead to the development of moulin L7 used for tracing experiments in 201112. The photo was taken 8 June 2011, one day after the fracture opened. The hose width is approximately 25 mm.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Schematic showing how water leakage is calculated in Eqs. (6) to (8).

The total leak q from the channel into the fracture is treated as the sum of many small leaks δq (Eq. (7)). Each small leak is calculated using Toricelli’s equation (Eq. (6)); these are integrated around the curved perimeter of the channel cross section from ϕ = 0 to ϕ = π (Eq. (8)). In the ’slow’ model, the fracture width wfc just below the channel is fixed at a constant wfc = wf (as shown in Fig. 2). In the ’fast’ model, wfc increases with time close to the channel because turbulent heat transfer melts the ice where water is entering the fracture (see Eq. (13)), but remains fixed at wf elsewhere. Additional symbols are the parameter C in Toricelli’s equation, water depth h(ϕ), and channel radius rc.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Temporal evolution of fracture propagation and ice accretion.

This is the same as Fig. 3, except that diurnal changes in channel water level are included. The lower edge of the shading shows the fracture depth, and the water level is shown by the grey solid line. Shading indicates the thickness of ice accretion on to the fracture walls (Eq. (9)), with stippling and hatching indicating where total ice accretion is sufficient to close fractures of width 1 or 3 cm, respectively, before they reach the bed. These examples used Lf = 250 m, rc = 1.0 m based on observations in SW Greenland13, and the measured borehole temperature profiles shown in Fig. 1. Note that propagation rate is independent of fracture width wf (see Methods). The main changes from Fig. 3 are the longer propagation times, which allow thicker ice accretion and a more restricted range of conditions for full-depth hydrofracture.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Maximum ice accretion thickness in fractures propagating to the bed.

This is the same as Fig. 4, except that diurnal changes in channel water level are included. Maximum ice accretion is an indication of the minimum fracture width needed to enable full-depth hydrofracture propagation; thinner fractures will terminate before reaching the bed. Shading indicates the thickness of ice accretion (Eq. (9)), with stippling and hatching indicating where total ice accretion is sufficient to close fractures of width of 1 or 3 cm, respectively. These examples used the measured borehole temperature profiles shown in Fig. 1.

Extended Data Fig. 7 Theoretical estimates of fracture widths.

(a) Fracture width profiles calculated following Krawczynski et al.32 (Eq. (10)) for partially-filled fractures that have propagated to zd = 800 m. This shows how predicted fracture widths are very sensitive to water level za; it also shows the development of the constriction in the upper part of the fracture, once water level starts to drop below the surface (za/zd just above zero), which prevents us applying their model to partially-filled fractures in our study. Qualitatively similar profiles are found for other reasonable values of zd and \(\sigma {{\prime} }_{x}\). (b) Estimates of fracture widths at the surface, for completely water-filled fractures, again following Krawczynski et al.32 (Eq. (10); blue lines). For comparison, the black line represents the observed ~ 2 cm-wide fractures considered in this study (grey shaded range 1 to 3 cm). Calculations used plausible tensile far-field deviatoric stresses of 50, 100 and 200 kPa (dashes, solid, dotted lines, respectively). Although such wide surface fractures are observed following lake drainage events1,2 they are well beyond the range of widths that we have observed to be associated with supraglacial stream capture.

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Chandler, D.M., Hubbard, A. Widespread partial-depth hydrofractures in ice sheets driven by supraglacial streams. Nat. Geosci. 16, 605–611 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01208-0

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