Abstract
The subglacial landscape of Princess Elizabeth Land (PEL) in East Antarctica is poorly known due to a paucity of ice thickness measurements. This is problematic given its importance for understanding ice sheet dynamics and landscape and climate evolution. To address this issue, we describe the topography beneath the ice sheet by assuming that ice surface expressions in satellite imagery relate to large-scale subglacial features. We find evidence that a large, previously undiscovered subglacial drainage network is hidden beneath the ice sheet in PEL. We interpret a discrete feature that is 140 × 20 km in plan form, and multiple narrow sinuous features that extend over a distance of ∼1100 km. We hypothesize that these are tectonically controlled and relate to a large subglacial basin containing a deep-water lake in the interior of PEL linked to a series of long, deep canyons. The presence of 1-km-deep canyons is confirmed at a few localities by radio-echo sounding data, and drainage analysis suggests that these canyons will direct subglacial meltwater to the coast between the Vestfold Hills and the West Ice Shelf.
Highlights
Subglacial drainage beneath the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) is important because basal water can affect the flow of overlying ice (Stearns et al, 2008), may influence ice sheet mass balance (Bell et al, 2011) and, where it meets the ocean, may locally enhance rates of basal melt beneath ice shelves (Le Brocq et al, 2013)
Two distinct but connected linear ice surface patterns are apparent in Princess Elizabeth Land (PEL) (Fig. 2)
Subglacial Basin Morphology In the interior of PEL, an elongate, extensive, relatively featureless zone of the ice sheet surface is apparent in Mosaic of Antarctica (MOA) and RADARSAT imagery (Fig. 1B; Fig. DR1)
Summary
Subglacial drainage beneath the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) is important because basal water can affect the flow of overlying ice (Stearns et al, 2008), may influence ice sheet mass balance (Bell et al, 2011) and, where it meets the ocean, may locally enhance rates of basal melt beneath ice shelves (Le Brocq et al, 2013). Data (Bamber et al, 2009), consistently reveal a series of large-scale linear features that cross PEL sub-perpendicular to present-day ice flow. By applying hydrological flow routing algorithms to both bed models, and the present-day ice surface, we test the influence of the features upon subglacial water flow.
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