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Title:
Stabilizing feedbacks in glacier-bed erosion
Authors:
Alley, R. B.; Lawson, D. E.; Larson, G. J.; Evenson, E. B.; Baker, G. S.
Affiliation:
AA(Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA), AB(Department of Geological Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA), AC(Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015, USA), AD(Department of Geology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14260, USA)
Publication:
Nature, Volume 424, Issue 6950, pp. 758-760 (2003). (Nature Homepage)
Publication Date:
08/2003
Origin:
NATURE
DOI:
10.1038/nature01839
Bibliographic Code:
2003Natur.424..758A

Abstract

Glaciers often erode, transport and deposit sediment much more rapidly than nonglacial environments, with implications for the evolution of glaciated mountain belts and their associated sedimentary basins. But modelling such glacial processes is difficult, partly because stabilizing feedbacks similar to those operating in rivers have not been identified for glacial landscapes. Here we combine new and existing data of glacier morphology and the processes governing glacier evolution from diverse settings to reveal such stabilizing feedbacks. We find that the long profiles of beds of highly erosive glaciers tend towards steady-state angles opposed to and slightly more than 50 per cent steeper than the overlying ice-air surface slopes, and that additional subglacial deepening must be enabled by non-glacial processes. Climatic or glaciological perturbations of the ice-air surface slope can have large transient effects on glaciofluvial sediment flux and apparent glacial erosion rate.
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