Author(s): Katrin Roehl
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Abstract: The thermal regime of the ice-contact lake at the terminus of the Tasman Glacier has been examined over different time scales within a one-year period. It is characterised by a significant variation of water temperatures with depths and in time, whereas the variation between different locations is minimal. On an annual time scale temperatures vary according to the seasons, and on a smaller time scale they are largely determined by weather patterns. Surface temperatures exhibit the largest variations and reach valuesof more than 10 oC in summer. Average water temperature over several depths is 1.5 oC, which results in backwasting of submerged cliffs in the order of 25 to 50 ma. Without a lake, sub-debris melt would result in downwasting with a vertical ice loss of about 1.5 ma. Hence, subaqueous melt plays an important role in the ice loss of lake-calving, temperate glaciers. Nevertheless, calving might often still be the dominant process, even for a slow-moving glacier like the Tasman Glacier.
Year: 2002