Changes in the longitudinal profiles of glaciers during advance and retreat

Abstract

AbstractThe pattern of elevation change along the length of glaciers caused by retreat from Neoglacial maximum to present is investigated and described in terms of a profile-shape factorfdefined as the ratio of the average thickness change to the local thickness change at the present terminus. The factorfis relevant to estimation of the change in volume of a glacier in relation to its change in length and the response time to a change in climate. Thickness-change profiles on a selection of 15 mountain valley glaciers givefin the range 0.1–0.4 with an average of 0.28. The elevation changes are in all cases largest near the terminus and decrease headward more rapidly than a linear variation with distance that would correspond tofof 0.50, a value assumed to be characteristic in the past. The smaller values offindicate reduced estimates of changes in volume versus change in lengths and smaller response times for glaciers. Total volume change for glaciers and ice caps (excluding ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica) as estimated roughly by these means, is consistent with previous estimates from mass-balance measurements and supports the view that melting of these ice masses has made a significant contribution to sea-level change over the last century. The observed values offdo not explain an apparent discrepancy between alternative theoretical methods for estimating the response time of glaciers based on length and terminus velocity or based on the thickness and terminus-ablation rate. The discrepancy may be caused in part by the relationship between terminus velocity and ablation rate associated with strongly non-steady-state conditions during advance or retreat. The patterns of elevation change measured for short time intervals of a few decades or less correspond to a wide spread of profile-shape factorffrom less than 0.1 to more than 1.2 indicative of transients in the short time-scale response.