Subglacial Drainage System Research Articles

Correspondence

Recent efforts have been made to increase our understanding of the dynamics of ice-sheet hydrology. Notably, much work has focused on the southwest sector of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS), with intense data collection on diurnal to interannual timescales (e.g. Bartholomew and others, 2012; Cowton and others, 2013; Doyle and others, 2013). Observations show a close correlation between surface meltwater production and the seasonal ice-sheet acceleration, and it is a well-accepted hypothesis that an increase in the former drives the latter via meltwater transfer through the subglacial drainage system (e.g. Zwally and others, 2002). However, due to the remote nature and complexity of the subglacial domain, a satisfactory description at the process level has remained elusive. Better understanding of the coupling of meltwater forcing on ice velocity through the subglacial component is therefore necessary to improve the physical integrity of ice-sheet models.

Glacier velocity and water input variability in a maritime environment: Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

AbstractShort-term glacier velocity variations typically occur when a water input is accommodated by an increase in the subglacial water pressure. Although these velocity variations have been well documented on many glaciers, few studies have considered them on glaciers where heavy rain and glacier melt occur year-round. This study investigates the relationship between water inputs and glacier velocity on Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand. We installed six GNSS stations across the lower glacier during austral summer 2010/11 and one station during summer 2012/13. Glacier velocity remained elevated at all stations for ∼7 days following large rain events. During diurnal melt events, we find velocity variations in the early afternoon (12:00–16:00) at 600 m a.s.l. and in the late evening (20:00–01:00) at 400 m a.s.l. We hypothesize that the late-evening velocity variations occurred as an upstream region of high subglacial water pressures and accelerated ice motion propagated downstream. This mechanism may also explain the increased longitudinal compression and transverse extension across the lower glacier during speed-up events. Our results indicate that the subglacial drainage system likely decreases in efficiency upstream and that the water input variability can still cause short-term velocity variations despite the large year-round water inputs.

Chaotic dynamics of a glaciohydraulic model

AbstractA model subglacial drainage system, coupled to an ice-dammed reservoir that receives a time-varying meltwater input, is described and analysed. In numerical experiments an ice-marginal lake drains through a subglacial channel, producing periodic floods, and fills with meltwater at a rate dependent on air temperature, which varies seasonally with a peak value of Tm. The analysis reveals regions of Tm parameter space corresponding to ‘mode locking’, where flood repeat time is independent of Tm; resonance, where decreasing Tm counter-intuitively increases flood size; and chaotic dynamics, where flood cycles are sensitive to initial conditions, never repeat and exhibit phase-space mixing. Bifurcations associated with abrupt changes in flood size and timing within the year separate these regions. This is the first time these complex dynamics have been displayed by a glaciohydraulic model and these findings have implications for our understanding of ice-marginal lakes, moulins and subglacial lakes.

Sedimentary and structural evolution of a relict subglacial to subaerial drainage system and its hydrogeological implications: an example from Anglesey, north Wales, UK

Subglacial drainage systems exert a major control on basal-sliding rates and glacier dynamics. However, comparatively few studies have examined the sedimentary record of subglacial drainage. This is due to the paucity of modern analogues, the limited recognition and preservation of upper flow regime deposits within the geological record, and the difficulty of distinguishing subglacial meltwater deposits from other meltwater sediments (e.g. glacier outburst flood deposits). Within this study, the sedimentological and structural evolution of a subglacial to subaerial (ice-marginal/proglacial) drainage system is examined. Particular emphasis is placed upon the genetic development and preservation of upper flow regime bedforms and specifically recognising them within a subglacial meltwater context. Facies are attributed to subglacial meltwater activity and record sedimentation within a confined, but progressively enlargening, subglacial channel system produced under dune to upper flow regime conditions. Bedforms include rare large-scale sinusoidal bedding with syn-depositional deformation produced by current-induced traction and shearing within the channel margins. Subglacial sedimentation culminated with the abrupt change to a more ephemeral drainage regime indicating channel-abandonment or a seasonal drainage regime. Retreat of the ice margin, led to the establishment of subaerial drainage with phases of sheet-flow punctuated by channel incision and anastomosing channel development under diurnal, ablation-related, seasonal discharge. The presence of extensive hydrofracture networks demonstrate that proglacial groundwater-levels fluctuated markedly and this may have influenced later overriding of the site by an ice stream.

Greenland ice sheet annual motion insensitive to spatial variations in subglacial hydraulic structure

AbstractWe present ice velocities observed with global positioning systems and TerraSAR‐X/TanDEM‐X in a land‐terminating region of the southwest Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) during the melt year 2012–2013, to examine the spatial pattern of seasonal and annual ice motion. We find that while spatial variability in the configuration of the subglacial drainage system controls ice motion at short timescales, this configuration has negligible impact on the spatial pattern of the proportion of annual motion which occurs during summer. While absolute annual velocities vary substantially, the proportional contribution of summer motion to annual motion does not. These observations suggest that in land‐terminating margins of the GrIS, subglacial hydrology does not significantly influence spatial variations in net summer speedup. Furthermore, our findings imply that not every feature of the subglacial drainage system needs to be resolved in ice sheet models.

Modeling the response of subglacial drainage at Paakitsoq, west Greenland, to 21stcentury climate change

Although the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is losing mass at an accelerating rate, much uncertainty remains about how surface runoff interacts with the subglacial drainage system and affects water pressures and ice velocities, both currently, and into the future. Here, we apply a physically based, subglacial hydrological model to the Paakitsoq region, west Greenland, and run it into the future to calculate patterns of daily subglacial water pressure fluctuations in response to climatic warming. The model is driven with moulin input hydrographs calculated by a surface routing model, forced with distributed runoff. Surface runoff and routing are simulated for a baseline year (2000), before the model is forced with future climate scenarios for the years 2025, 2050, and 2095, based on the IPCC's Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). Our results show that as runoff increases throughout the 21st century, and/or as RCP scenarios become more extreme, the subglacial drainage system makes an earlier transition from a less efficient network operating at high water pressures, to a more efficient network with lower pressures. This will likely cause an overall decrease in ice velocities for marginal areas of the GrIS. However, short-term variations in runoff, and therefore subglacial pressure, can still cause localized speedups, even after the system has become more efficient. If these short-term pressure fluctuations become more pronounced as future runoff increases, the associated late-season speedups may help to compensate for the drop in overall summer velocities, associated with earlier transitioning from a high to a low pressure system.

Dendritic subglacial drainage systems in cold glaciers formed by cut‐and‐closure processes

The routing and storage of meltwater and the configuration of drainage systems in glaciers exert a profound influence on glacier behaviour. However, little is known about the hydrological systems of cold glaciers, which form a significant proportion of the total glacier population in the climate sensitive region of the igh rctic. Using glacio‐speleological techniques, we obtained direct access to explore and survey three conduit systems and one moulin within the tongue area of Tellbreen, a small cold‐based valley glacier in central pitsbergen. More than 600 m of conduits were surveyed and mapped in plan, profile and cross‐section view to analyse the configuration of the drainage system. The investigations revealed that cold‐based glaciers can exhibit a dendritic drainage network with supra‐, en‐ and subglacial components formed most likely by cut‐and‐closure processes as well as surface‐to‐bed drainage via moulins. Furthermore, we observed that water is stored within the glacier and released gradually via subglacial conduits during the winter months, forming a large and active icing in the proglacial area. The presence of supra‐, en‐ and subglacial components, the surface‐to‐bed moulin and the dendritic subglacial drainage network suggest that existing models and understanding of the hydrology of cold glaciers needs to be re‐evaluated, mostly concerning the different possible pathways and processes that form the hydrological system.

High-resolution modelling of the seasonal evolution of surface water storage on the Greenland Ice Sheet

Abstract. Seasonal meltwater lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet form when surface runoff is temporarily trapped in surface topographic depressions. The development of such lakes affects both the surface energy balance and dynamics of the ice sheet. Although areal extents, depths and lifespan of lakes can be inferred from satellite imagery, such observational studies have a limited temporal resolution. Here, we adopt a modelling-based strategy to estimate the seasonal evolution of surface water storage for the ~ 3600 km2 Paakitsoq region of W. Greenland. We use a high-resolution time-dependent surface mass balance model to calculate surface melt, a supraglacial water routing model to calculate lake filling and a prescribed water-volume-based threshold to predict rapid lake drainage events. This threshold assumes that drainage will occur through a fracture if V = Fa ⋅ H, where V is lake volume, H is the local ice thickness and Fa is the potential fracture area. The model shows good agreement between modelled lake locations and volumes and those observed in nine Landsat 7 ETM images from 2001, 2002 and 2005. We use the model to investigate the lake water volume required to trigger drainage, and the impact that varying this threshold volume has on the proportion of meltwater that is stored in surface lakes and enters the subglacial drainage system. Model performance is maximised with values of Fa between 4000 and 7500 m2. For these thresholds, lakes transiently store < 40% of available meltwater at the beginning of the melt season, decreasing to ~ 5 to 10% by the middle of the melt season; over the course of a melt season, 40 to 50% of total meltwater production enters the subglacial drainage system through moulins at the bottom of drained lakes.

Thick sediments beneath Greenland’s ablation zone and their potential role in future ice sheet dynamics

The geological nature of glacier beds plays a key role in ice sheet dynamics. Whereas little is known about Greenland’s subglacial geology, the presence of basal sediments is a necessary condition for fast-flowing Antarctic ice streams. Such sediments sustain subglacial till layers, which if water saturated and under high pore-water pressure provide little resistance to ice flow. Using receiver function modeling of teleseismic P-waves, we report a thick (at least tens of meters) sediment layer beneath a site in Greenland’s ablation zone, ∼15 km away from the western ice sheet margin. Although we do not discuss the origin or detailed nature of these subglacial sediments, we suggest that they are capable of sustaining a till layer. Due to the prevalence of an inefficient, pressurized subglacial drainage system, this till layer would typically be under high pore pressures and fail at the shear stresses transmitted from the overlaying ice. Ice flow resistance is thus focused on regions where till is consolidated or absent, or where form drag over obstacles takes place. In contrast to Antarctica, Greenland’s surface melt now affects practically all latitudes, and efficient hydraulic connections between ice sheet surface and bed are pervasive throughout the ablation zone. This implies that rapid, melt-induced changes in subglacial water pressure are possible. The time required for basal till strength to react to these changes depends on the till’s properties. We estimate that formation and destruction of flow resistance can occur on time scales of less than a few years. This could lead to changes in ice flow that are currently difficult to predict.

Seasonal-scale abrasion and quarrying patterns from a two-dimensional ice-flow model coupled to distributed and channelized subglacial drainage

Field data and numerical modeling show that glaciations have the potential either to enhance relief or to dampen topography. We aim to model the effect of the subglacial hydraulic system on spatiotemporal patterns of glacial erosion by abrasion and quarrying on time scales commensurate with drainage system fluctuations (e.g., seasonal to annual). We use a numerical model that incorporates a dual-morphology subglacial drainage system coupled to a higher-order ice-flow model and process-specific erosion laws. The subglacial drainage system allows for a dynamic transition between two morphologies: the distributed system, characterized by an increase in basal water pressure with discharge, and the channelized system, which exhibits a decrease in equilibrium water pressure with increasing discharge. We apply the model to a simple synthetic glacier geometry, drive it with prescribed meltwater input variations, and compute sliding and erosion rates over a seasonal cycle. When both distributed and channelized systems are included, abrasion and sliding maxima migrate ~20% up-glacier compared to simulations with distributed drainage only. Power-law sliding generally yields to a broader response of abrasion to water pressure changes along the flowline compared to Coulomb-friction sliding. Multi-day variations in meltwater input elicit a stronger abrasion response than either diurnal- or seasonal variations alone for the same total input volume. An increase in water input volume leads to increased abrasion. We find that ice thickness commensurate with ice sheet outlet glaciers can hinder the up-glacier migration of abrasion. Quarrying patterns computed with a recently published law differ markedly from calculated abrasion patterns, with effective pressure being a stronger determinant than sliding speeds of quarrying rates. These variations in calculated patterns of instantaneous erosion as a function of hydrology-, sliding-, and erosion-model formulation, as well as model forcing, may lead to significant differences in predicted topographic profiles on long time scales.

Swarms of repeating stick-slip icequakes triggered by snow loading at Mount Rainier volcano

We have detected over 150,000 small (M 3000 m) on the glacier-covered edifice and occur primarily in weeklong to monthlong swarms composed of simultaneous distinct families of events. Each family contains up to thousands of earthquakes repeating at regular intervals as often as every few minutes. Mixed polarity first motions, a linear relationship between recurrence interval and event size, and strong correlation between swarm activity and snowfall suggest the source is stick-slip basal sliding of glaciers. The sudden added weight of snow during winter storms triggers a temporary change from smooth aseismic sliding to seismic stick-slip sliding in locations where basal conditions are favorable to frictional instability. Coda wave interferometry shows that source locations migrate over time at glacial speeds, starting out fast and slowing down over time, indicating a sudden increase in sliding velocity triggers the transition to stick-slip sliding. We propose a hypothesis that this increase is caused by the redistribution of basal fluids rather than direct loading because of a 1–2 day lag between snow loading and earthquake activity. This behavior is specific to winter months because it requires the inefficient drainage of a distributed subglacial drainage system. Identification of the source of these frequent signals offers a view of basal glacier processes, discriminates against alarming volcanic noises, documents short-term effects of weather on the cryosphere, and has implications for repeating earthquakes, in general.

Sedimentological and deformational criteria for discriminating subglaciofluvial deposits from subaqueous ice‐contact fan deposits: A Pleistocene example (Ireland)

AbstractA pit located near Ballyhorsey, 28 km south of Dublin (eastern Ireland), displays subglacially deposited glaciofluvial sediments passing upwards into proglacial subaqueous ice‐contact fan deposits. The coexistence of these two different depositional environments at the same location will help with differentiation between two very similar and easily confused glacial lithofacies. The lowermost sediments show aggrading subglacial deposits indicating a constrained accommodation space, mainly controlled by the position of an overlying ice roof during ice‐bed decoupling. These sediments are characterized by vertically stacked tills with large lenses of tabular to channelized sorted sediments. The sorted sediments consist of fine‐grained laminated facies, cross‐laminated sand and channelized gravels, and are interpreted as subglaciofluvial sediments deposited within a subglacial de‐coupled space. The subglaciofluvial sequence is characterized by glaciotectonic deformation structures within discrete beds, triggered by fluid overpressure and shear stress during episodes of ice/bed recoupling (clastic dykes and folds). The upper deposits correspond to the deposition of successive hyperpycnal flows in a proximal proglacial lake, forming a thick sedimentary wedge erosively overlying the subglacial deposits. Gravel facies and large‐scale trough bedding sand are observed within this proximal wedge, while normally graded sand beds with developed bedforms are observed further downflow. The building of the prograding ice‐contact subaqueous fan implies an unrestricted accommodation space and is associated with deformation structures related to gravity destabilization during fan spreading (normal faults). This study facilitates the recognition of subglacial/submarginal depositional environments formed, in part, during localized ice/bed coupling episodes in the sedimentary record. The sedimentary sequence exposed in Ballyhorsey permits characterization of the temporal framework of meltwater production during deglaciation, the impact on the subglacial drainage system and the consequences on the Irish Sea Ice Stream flow mechanisms.

Greenland ice sheet hydrology

Understanding Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) hydrology is essential for evaluating response of ice dynamics to a warming climate and future contributions to global sea level rise. Recently observed increases in temperature and melt extent over the GrIS have prompted numerous remote sensing, modeling, and field studies gauging the response of the ice sheet and outlet glaciers to increasing meltwater input, providing a quickly growing body of literature describing seasonal and annual development of the GrIS hydrologic system. This system is characterized by supraglacial streams and lakes that drain through moulins, providing an influx of meltwater into englacial and subglacial environments that increases basal sliding speeds of outlet glaciers in the short term. However, englacial and subglacial drainage systems may adjust to efficiently drain increased meltwater without significant changes to ice dynamics over seasonal and annual scales. Both proglacial rivers originating from land-terminating glaciers and subglacial conduits under marine-terminating glaciers represent direct meltwater outputs in the form of fjord sediment plumes, visible in remotely sensed imagery. This review provides the current state of knowledge on GrIS surface water hydrology, following ice sheet surface meltwater production and transport via supra-, en-, sub-, and proglacial processes to final meltwater export to the ocean. With continued efforts targeting both process-level and systems analysis of the hydrologic system, the larger picture of how future changes in Greenland hydrology will affect ice sheet glacier dynamics and ultimately global sea level rise can be advanced.

Modeling channelized and distributed subglacial drainage in two dimensions

[1] We present a two-dimensional Glacier Drainage System model (GlaDS) that couples distributed and channelized subglacial water flow. Distributed flow occurs through linked cavities that are represented as a continuous water sheet of variable thickness. Channelized flow occurs through Rothlisberger channels that can form on any of the edges of a prescribed, unstructured network of potential channels. Water storage is accounted for in an englacial aquifer and in moulins, which also act as point sources of water to the subglacial system. Solutions are presented for a synthetic topography designed to mimic an ice sheet margin. For low discharge, all the flow is accommodated in the sheet, whereas for sufficiently high discharge, the model exhibits a channelization instability which leads to the formation of a self-organized channel system. The random orientation of the network edges allows the channel system geometry to be relatively unbiased, in contrast to previous structured grid-based models. Under steady conditions, the model supports the classical view of the subglacial drainage system, with low pressure regions forming around the channels. Under diurnally varying input, water flows in and out of the channels, and a rather complex spatiotemporal pattern of water pressures is predicted. We explore the effects of parameter variations on the channel system topology and mean effective pressure. The model is then applied to a mountain glacier and forced with meltwater calculated by a temperature index model. The results are broadly consistent with our current understanding of the glacier drainage system and demonstrate the applicability of the model to real settings.

Deep icequakes: What happens at the base of Alpine glaciers?

AbstractBasal seismicity cannot be attributed exclusively to glacier stick‐slip motion. As shown by previous studies on temperate Alpine glaciers, there also exist basal seismic sources, which are not due to pure shear mechanisms. Their moment tensors have substantial, if not dominant, isotropic components. Based on first motion data of high‐quality seismic records from Gornergletscher and Triftgletscher, Switzerland, we argue that the observed isotropic components can be explained by tensile faulting. The implied coseismic volumetric change can be both positive (fracture opening) and negative (fracture collapse). We attribute these observations to hydraulic processes near water‐filled cavities, whose connectivity to the subglacial drainage system changes over time. Thus, our proposed icequake source mechanisms cannot be reconciled with pure shear sources at the glacier bed, which would be expected for basal stick‐slip motion. This sliding mode has recently been proposed as a “realitively common” mechanism, which can substantially enhance subglacial erosion. The existence of several seismic source mechanisms (tensile, shear, or some combination of the two) of basal icequakes implies that a solid understanding about the nature of these events is indispensible if conclusions about glacier sliding, subglacial erosion, and other basal processes are to be drawn from observed seismicity.

Modeling subglacial water routing at Paakitsoq, W Greenland

The functioning of the Greenland Ice Sheet's subglacial drainage system and its effect on ice dynamics have been inferred largely from hypothetical hydrology dynamics models and from analysis of satellite data and in situ GPS measurements. Despite this, there is still uncertainty about how the surface hydrology interacts with the subglacial drainage system and affects basal water pressures and ice flow, especially over annual time scales. To address this, we developed a high spatial (100 m) and temporal (1 h) resolution, distributed, physically based, subglacial hydrological model, and applied it to the Paakitsoq region, western Greenland. The model is driven with moulin input hydrographs calculated by a surface routing and lake filling/draining model, forced ultimately with distributed hourly runoff calculated by a surface mass balance model. Key outputs from the model are spatially and temporally varying subglacial water pressures and proglacial stream hydrographs. Early in the melt season, short spikes in water pressure lasting less than a day occur as a result of lake drainage events. During midsummer, there are sustained periods of high water pressure lasting days to weeks, even at times when the subglacial system is inferred to be predominantly efficient. Later in the summer, large diurnal fluctuations in water pressure occur with peaks regularly exceeding ice overburden pressure superimposed on a gradually declining trend. These phenomena support the results of previous hypothetical modeling efforts and inferences drawn from GPS measurements.

Evolution of the subglacial drainage system beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet revealed by tracers

Predictions of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s response to climate change are limited in part by uncertainty in the coupling between meltwater lubrication of the ice-sheet bed and ice flow1, 2, 3. This uncertainty arises largely from a lack of direct measurements of water flow characteristics at the bed of the ice sheet. Previous work has been restricted to indirect observations based on seasonal and spatial variations in surface ice velocities4, 5, 6, 7 and on meltwater flux8. Here, we employ rhodamine and sulphur hexafluoride tracers, injected into the drainage system over three melt seasons, to observe subglacial drainage properties and evolution beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, up to 57 km from the margin. Tracer results indicate evolution from a slow, inefficient drainage system to a fast, efficient channelized drainage system over the course of the melt season. Further inland, evolution to efficient drainage occurs later and more slowly. An efficient routing of water was established up to 41 km or more from the margin, where the ice is approximately 1 km thick. Overall, our findings support previous interpretations of drainage system characteristics, thereby validating the use of surface observations as a means of investigating basal processes.

Organic carbon export from the Greenland ice sheet

Glacial meltwater exports a unique type of organic carbon to marine systems, distinct from non-glacially derived riverine export, potentially capable of stimulating downstream marine primary productivity. Here, we describe for the first time the bulk-level dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) isotopic composition of glacial meltwater draining the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS). These data, in conjunction with an earlier study that investigated the molecular-level composition of GrIS dissolved organic matter, collectively describe the concentration, radiocarbon content, and lability of organic carbon in subglacial discharge from a land-terminating outlet glacier during a melt season. By scaling up our measurements across the ice sheet, we estimate that the annual DOC flux from the GrIS (0.08Tg/y) is equivalent to that from a small Arctic river (discharge (Q)<50km3/y), and that the annual POC flux from the GrIS (0.9Tg/y) may be comparable to that of a large Arctic river (Q>200km3/y). The DOC flux is derived primarily from beneath the glacier (subglacial) (>75%) in the early season, and from surface ice-melt (up to 100%) transmitting through the subglacial environment at the peak of the meltseason. The POC flux is primarily derived from the subglacial environment throughout the meltseason. The early season (low flow) glacier discharge contains higher DOC concentrations (0.5–4.1mgL−1), and exports more enriched carbon (Δ14CDOC ∼ −250‰) compared to the peak season (high flow) discharge, when the concentrations are lower (0.1–0.6mgL−1) and the Δ14C is more depleted (Δ14CDOC ∼ −400‰). Conversely, the POC export (1.4–13.2mgL−1, Δ14CPOC ∼ −250‰) shows no temporal variation in either concentration or radiocarbon content throughout the meltseason. Dissolved ion loads in concomitant samples reflected the seasonal evolution of the subglacial drainage system, confirming the influence of subglacial hydrology on the composition of the bulk carbon pools. Based on this work, we conclude that (1) different mechanisms control the DOC and POC flux from glacial systems; (2) chemically-distinct DOC pools are accessed by seasonally-evolving hydrological flow-paths; and (3) the GrIS can deliver labile carbon, which may also be 14C-depleted, to downstream proglacial and marine environments.

Evolution of drainage system morphology at a land‐terminating Greenlandic outlet glacier

The influence of meltwater on the dynamics and geomorphic impact of the Greenland Ice Sheet is strongly controlled by the morphology of the ice sheet's drainage system. However, this system and its evolution through the melt season remain poorly understood. Here we present the results of an intensive programme of dye tracing experiments undertaken along the lower 14 km of a land‐terminating Greenlandic outlet glacier over a period of four months during the 2010 melt season. These data are interpreted in conjunction with observations of proglacial discharge, englacial water storage, surface melt rates and ice velocity to produce a detailed picture of the changing hydrology of the glacier. Following the onset of melt in the spring, inputs to the drainage system regularly exceed outputs, causing the englacial water level to rise to the ice sheet surface. During this time there is a rapid transition from distributed to channelized drainage in those parts of the drainage system closed by ice deformation over winter. As the melt season progresses, channel efficiency increases and englacial storage and ice velocity decrease. High‐velocity events continue to be observed following the channelization of the drainage system however, indicating that hydrological forcing of ice velocity occurs despite the existence of channels during periods when meltwater inputs exceed the capacity of the subglacial drainage system.

Paleoflood marks in sandur morphometry as the result of the glacier surge (NW Poland)

In the Pomeranian marginal zone of the last Pleistocene glaciation specific morphometric features are found. They represent indicators of surging events affecting the individual outlet glacier lobes of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet margin. They are assumed to have been active during the climate warming of the Weichselian glaciation decay. Many tunnel valleys deep-rooted in the proximal slopes of the terminal moraine ridge with incised gorges and wide extramarginal sandur fans spread from the mouths to the forefield. The relatively low relief intensity factor, the fluvioglacial sediments covering distal slopes of the terminal moraines and ‘washed out’ older forms may be considered as indirect evidence of outburst floods caused by a re-canalization of the subglacial drainage system. The morphometry of the palaeochannels in the gorge profiles are used to calculate estimates of extreme discharges (c. 5 × 103–105m3s–1).