Detailed subglacial topography and drumlins at the marginal zone of Múlajökull outlet glacier, central Iceland: Evidence from low frequency GPR data

Abstract

New ground penetrating radar (GPR) observations on the Múlajökull surge-type outlet glacier, central Iceland, are presented. Overall 10.5 km of GPR profile lines were recorded parallel to the glacier margin in August, 2015. Detailed GPR investigations combined with high-accuracy GPS measurements allowed to build a high-resolution model of the subglacial topography. We provide new evidence of streamlined ridges beneath Múlajökull’s marginal zone interpreted as drumlins and show the location of the upper edge of the drumlin field. This discovery improves understanding of the location, morphology and development of drumlins as other geophysical observations of subglacial bedforms beneath modern outlet glaciers are quite rare. The location of drumlins corresponds with the position of the major sets of crevasses in the digital elevation model (2008) suggesting the presence of additional drumlins beneath such crevasses in the ice-marginal zone. We suggest this semi-circular pattern of crevasses to be formed due to the variable glacier strain rates created by the subglacial topography. Numerous hyperbolic diffractions representing reflections of englacial channels are found in radar profiles suggesting a well-developed channelized drainage system of a surge-type glacier in its quiescence phase. The calculated thinning of the ice surface in the investigated area (0.65 km2) is on average 17.9 m during 2008–2015.