Dataset Information

Periodic outburst floods from an ice-dammed lake in East Greenland.

ABSTRACT: We report evidence of four cycles of outburst floods from Catalina Lake, an ice-dammed lake in East Greenland, identified in satellite imagery between 1966-2016. The lake measures 20-25?km2, and lake level drops 130-150?m in each event, corresponding to a water volume of 2.6-3.4?Gt, and a release of potential energy of 1016?J, among the largest outburst floods reported in historical times. The drainage cycle has shortened systematically, and the lake filling rate has increased over each cycle, suggesting that the drainage pattern is changing due to climate warming with possible implications for environmental conditions in Scoresbysund fjord.

SUBMITTER: Grinsted A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5577127 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Periodic outburst floods from an ice-dammed lake in East Greenland.

Grinsted Aslak A Hvidberg Christine S CS Campos Néstor N Dahl-Jensen Dorthe D

Scientific reports 20170830 1

We report evidence of four cycles of outburst floods from Catalina Lake, an ice-dammed lake in East Greenland, identified in satellite imagery between 1966-2016. The lake measures 20-25 km<sup>2</sup>, and lake level drops 130-150 m in each event, corresponding to a water volume of 2.6-3.4 Gt, and a release of potential energy of 10<sup>16</sup> J, among the largest outburst floods reported in historical times. The drainage cycle has shortened systematically, and the lake filling rate has increa ...[more]

PMID: 28855523

Similar Datasets

Project description:Measuring microbial abundance in glacier ice and identifying its controls is essential for a better understanding and quantification of biogeochemical processes in glacial ecosystems. However, cell enumeration of glacier ice samples is challenging due to typically low cell numbers and the presence of interfering mineral particles. We quantified for the first time the abundance of microbial cells in surface ice from geographically distinct sites on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), using three enumeration methods: epifluorescence microscopy (EFM), flow cytometry (FCM), and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). In addition, we reviewed published data on microbial abundance in glacier ice and tested the three methods on artificial ice samples of realistic cell (10(2)-10(7) cells ml(-1)) and mineral particle (0.1-100 mg ml(-1)) concentrations, simulating a range of glacial ice types, from clean subsurface ice to surface ice to sediment-laden basal ice. We then used multivariate statistical analysis to identify factors responsible for the variation in microbial abundance on the ice sheet. EFM gave the most accurate and reproducible results of the tested methodologies, and was therefore selected as the most suitable technique for cell enumeration of ice containing dust. Cell numbers in surface ice samples, determined by EFM, ranged from ~ 2 × 10(3) to ~ 2 × 10(6) cells ml(-1) while dust concentrations ranged from 0.01 to 2 mg ml(-1). The lowest abundances were found in ice sampled from the accumulation area of the ice sheet and in samples affected by fresh snow; these samples may be considered as a reference point of the cell abundance of precipitants that are deposited on the ice sheet surface. Dust content was the most significant variable to explain the variation in the abundance data, which suggests a direct association between deposited dust particles and cells and/or by their provision of limited nutrients to microbial communities on the GrIS.

Dataset Information

Periodic outburst floods from an ice-dammed lake in East Greenland.

Publications

Periodic outburst floods from an ice-dammed lake in East Greenland.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets