Ice-thickness measurements of Taku Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A., and their relevance to its recent behavior

Abstract

AbstractUsing radio-echo soundings and seismic reflections, we measured cross-sections of Taku Glacier, near Juneau, Alaska, to resolve inconsistencies in previous measurements and to understand better the glacier’s dynamics. The maximum thickness is about 1477 m and the minimum bed elevation is about 600 m below sea level, which establishes Taku Glacier as the thickest and deepest temperate glacier yet measured. Our data indicate that, during the 19th century, the terminus of Taku Glacier may have begun its rapid advance at a position where the ice bed was greater than 300 m below sea level and more than 25 km from the inland end of its submarine trough; this behavior is uncharacteristic of temperate tide-water glaciers. The glacier, which no longer calves, has eroded a sediment layer 100 m thick since 1890 at an average rate of about 3 m a−1 since 1948; this high erosion rate retards advance by entrenching the glacier into the terminal moraine. Calculations based on ice-deformation theory indicate significant basal ice motion near the terminus and high basal shear stress (140–220kPa) along much of its length. Estimated differences between ice flux and balance flux are consistent with observed thickening and positive net mass balance; these data indicate that ice volume is increasing and that further advance is likely.