The mystery of the glacier lake is solved

A long-standing mystery in the study of glaciers was recently – and synergistically – solved by a team led by Monoa astrobiologist and earth scientist Eric Gadoos at the University of Hawaii. Their findings were published in the journal this week Geographical research papers.

Mysteries include floods or “jockeys” that suddenly and unexpectedly emerge from glaciers or ice caps in Iceland where volcanic heat melts ice and water accumulates in lakes beneath glaciers. Scientists have long studied the evolution of these floods, some of the largest on Earth.

Gados, a professor at the UH Monoa School of Oceanography and Earth Sciences and Technology (SOSET), said the flooding could affect the movement of some glaciers and is a significant crisis in Iceland. “But the mechanism and timing of the onset of this flood is not understood.”

Then, in June 2015, an unexpected series of events revealed how the flooding began.

That summer, Gadoz and colleagues dug a hole in one of the Icelandic lakes to study its microbial life. While collecting samples through the borehole, the team saw a downward flow like a bathtub drain in the hole.

“The flow was so strong that we almost lost our sensor and sampling equipment in the hole.” “We speculated that we accidentally connected the water mass inside the glacier to the lake below the lake. That water mass was rapidly flowing into the lake.”

A few days later, after the team left the glacier, the lake flooded. Fortunately, the flooding was mild and Icelanders have an extensive early warning system on their rivers so no one was injured, nor was the infrastructure damaged in the event, Gados assured.

Researchers have used a computer model to draw a stream through a hole and its effect on a lake, to show that it can stimulate flooding.

“We discovered that glaciers could contain tiny bodies of water above the lakes obtained by the melting of summer.” “If this reservoir is hydraulically connected to the lake, the pressure in the lake increases and water starts leaking out from under the glacier.”

When the team made an artificial connection to the lake in 2015, water from rain or melting ice collects in the curvature and natural connections form when pressure is eventually forced to bring cracks through the glacier to the lake. This discovery provides a new understanding of how these floods can start and how this depends on the weather and season.

Icelandic collaborators continue to research the phenomenon using radio echo-sounding for underwater storage, as well as to study large lakes beneath it.