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Author Topic: The lake between Sukkertoppen Iskappe and Greenland icesheet?  (Read 4977 times)

Mr. Ä

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This lake stays frozen most of the year but everything is warming and the icesheet holding it back will melt one day and the lake should drain, atleast partly. Might even be a big flood in a few years(decades?) as the lake is 10km wide. It's looks to be draining to north-west now, but if there is solid ground under that ice there the water level could stay high and later drain from north-east or south.

Anyone know if the lake has a name or what the mountains to it's north and west are called? I'm thinking the one to west is Sukkertoppen?


Picture is from end of august 2016 when the lake was mostly ice free.

https://imgur.com/a/ton0EcC

Tealight

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Re: The lake between Sukkertoppen Iskappe and Greenland icesheet?
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2019, 07:52:47 PM »
Two years ago I spotted quite big icebergs in the lake, but just like you didn't find a name.

old thread:
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,2149.0.html

Espen

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Re: The lake between Sukkertoppen Iskappe and Greenland icesheet?
« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2019, 10:51:19 PM »
I got some maps from the region but none got a name for this particular lake (but I am sure there is a name), I found names of neighboring lakes see attached:
Have a ice day!

NotaDenier

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Re: The lake between Sukkertoppen Iskappe and Greenland icesheet?
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2019, 02:22:53 AM »
Same lake?

A common feature of catchments adjoining the Greenland ice sheet is the occurrence of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which occur when the water volume stored in an ice-dammed lake becomes sufficient to lift the ice barrier blocking its path downstream. We identified 15 GLOFs originating from a single source lake (marked A in Fig. 1 and fig. S1) (see Materials and Methods and fig. S5). Because the typical interval between GLOFs is on the order of several years, they introduce noise in the relationship between annual discharge and climate forcing. Consequently, we chose to discard the additional water released to the larger catchment during the GLOFs by linear interpolation to cut off the peak in discharge time series between onset and end of each GLOF, as determined by the daily discharge rate of change (fig. S3). The result is a detailed 40-year time series of daily mean discharge as annual hydrographs, with observational gaps and identified peaks from GLOFs (Fig. 2).

Mr. Ä

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Re: The lake between Sukkertoppen Iskappe and Greenland icesheet?
« Reply #4 on: August 04, 2019, 09:15:05 PM »
That is a different, smaller lake in the area, about 20km northwest from the big one. There are quite the number of lakes in the area and they seem to be high as the whole western Greenland is melting like crazy.

The lake in the study actually seems to be draining at the moment(unless it has gone empty in 2 days)

NotaDenier

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Re: The lake between Sukkertoppen Iskappe and Greenland icesheet?
« Reply #5 on: August 06, 2019, 01:58:27 AM »
Thank you

Mr. Ä

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Re: The lake between Sukkertoppen Iskappe and Greenland icesheet?
« Reply #6 on: August 18, 2020, 03:03:52 PM »
Lake keeps slowly expanding. I wonder from where it will eventually drain from. Northwest might be uphill so not that way.

Is there a compilation thread for posting GLOFs (before/after images of lakes or debris) here on the forums yet?

Espen

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Re: The lake between Sukkertoppen Iskappe and Greenland icesheet?
« Reply #7 on: August 18, 2020, 09:20:22 PM »
Lake keeps slowly expanding. I wonder from where it will eventually drain from. Northwest might be uphill so not that way.

Is there a compilation thread for posting GLOFs (before/after images of lakes or debris) here on the forums yet?

I would think the other lakes to the left of your mentioned lake is more interesting, what happens when the "dam" between them collapse?
But you are right the whole edge of the ice all around Greenland is extremely interesting!!
Have a ice day!

Tealight

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Re: The lake between Sukkertoppen Iskappe and Greenland icesheet?
« Reply #8 on: August 18, 2020, 10:12:24 PM »
I'm 95% certain that the lake already drains beneath the ice on the southern side. With under 810m it's the only side which doesn't significantly rise above the lake level of 795m.

The elevation data is from "ALOS Global Digital Surface Model DSM" (30m resolution)
« Last Edit: August 18, 2020, 10:17:45 PM by Tealight »

NotaDenier

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Re: The lake between Sukkertoppen Iskappe and Greenland icesheet?
« Reply #9 on: August 01, 2021, 02:56:13 PM »
Image update

I’m not sure where “lake A” is.
« Last Edit: August 03, 2021, 02:41:55 AM by NotaDenier »