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A flood that thundered through eastern Nepal in July 2016 left a telltale seismic signature and caused more erosion than local monsoon rains, new research shows.

[1] Tete Rousse Glacier (French Alps) was responsible for an outburst flood in 1892 that devastated the village of St Gervais-Le Fayet close to Chamonix, causing 175 fatalities. Changes in the hydrothermal configuration of the glacier are suspected to be the cause of this catastrophic outburst flood. In 2010, geophysical surveys of this glacier revealed a subglacial lake that was subsequently drained artificially. The processes controlling the thermal regime of the glacier have been investigated on the basis of measurements and snow/firn cover and heat flow models using meteorological data covering the last 200 years. Temperature measurements show a polythermal structure with subglacial water trapped by the cold lowest part of the glacier (−2°C). The modeling approach shows that the polythermal structure is due to temporal changes in the depth of the snow/firn cover at the glacier surface. Paradoxically, periods with negative mass balances, associated with warmer air temperature, tend to cool the glacier, whereas years with colder temperatures, associated with positive mass balances, tend to increase the glacier temperature by increasing the firnpack depth and extent. The thermal effect of the subglacial lake is evaluated and shows that the lake was formed around 1980. According to future climate scenarios, modeling shows that the glacier may cool again in the future. This study provides insights into the thermal processes responsible for water storage inside a small almost static glacier, which can lead to catastrophic outburst floods such as the 1892 event or potentially dangerous situations as in 2010.

Climate change in the mid‐to‐late Holocene transition is very important for predicting future climate trends and understanding the relationship between abrupt climate change and the development of past human civilization. In this study, Sr/Ca ratios and δ18O records with the annual resolution extracted from four fossil corals that were growing during the Middle Bronze Age Cold Epoch (MBACE) were used to reconstruct sea surface temperature (SST) and seawater δ18O (δ18Osw) in the South China Sea (SCS) during the mid‐to‐late Holocene transition. The results indicate that the SCS experienced a rapid cooling and wetting event during the period of ∼3500‐3800 yr BP (before present year 1950). Specifically, the average SST and δ18Osw declined rapidly by ∼3 °C and ∼0.65‰, respectively, over an interval of ∼100 years from ∼3850 yr BP to ∼3750 yr BP. This rapid climate change pattern recorded in coral archives broadly agrees with those in foraminiferal and stalagmite records from adjacent land and ocean areas. Consistent with other records from the North Atlantic, this cold event in the Asia‐Western Pacific region that occurred during the MBACE and was originally identified in the North Atlantic and European regions should have occurred at the global scale, which might be caused by changes in the Asian summer monsoon linked with solar irradiance and/or the North Atlantic climate. In addition, this rapid climate change might support the occurrence and timing of the outburst flood event during the Xia Dynasty and might have led to the fall of the Xia Dynasty.

A detailed understanding of calving processes at the lacustrine margins of the Greenland ice sheet is necessary for accurately forecasting its dynamic response to ongoing climate change. However, existing data sets of lacustrine calving are limited to summer seasons and to alpine glaciers. Here, we use an integrated time‐lapse and structure‐from‐motion approach to generate the first continuous year‐round volumetric record of calving processes at a lacustrine ice sheet margin. We identify two distinct calving regimes that are associated with melt‐undercutting and lake ice cover. We also find that calving rates respond rapidly to sudden lake drainage. Given that lake temperature, lake ice cover, and sudden lake drainages are controlled by air temperature and ice‐margin thinning, we suggest that climate change, manifested in lengthening summer seasons, will accelerate rates of mass loss and terminus recession at lacustrine ice‐margins in Greenland.

[1] The largest glacier outburst flood (jokulhlaup) ever recorded in Iceland occurred in 1996 and came from subglacial lake Grimsvotn in Vatnajokull ice cap. Among other noteworthy features, this flood was characterized by an unprecedentedly high lake level prior to flood initiation, extremely rapid linear rise in lake discharge, delay between the onset of lake drainage and floodwater arrival at the glacier terminus, formation of short-lived supraglacial fountains, and initially unchannelized outbursts of floodwater at the terminus. Observations suggest that the 1996 flood propagation mechanism was fundamentally different than that of previously observed floods from Grimsvotn. We advance a new model whereby floodwater initially propagates in a turbulent subglacial sheet, which feeds a nascent system of conduits. This model is able to explain key observations made of the 1996 jokulhlaup and may shed light on other outburst floods that do not conform to the standard model.

On 4 January 2010, a rockslide 1200 meters long, 350 meters wide, and 125 meters high dammed the Hunza River in Attabad, northern Pakistan, and formed Lake Gojal. The initial mass movement of rock killed 20 people and submerged several villages and 22 kilometers of the strategic Karakoram Highway linking Pakistan and China. Tens of thousands of people were displaced or cut off from overland connection with the rest of the country. On 29 May, the lake overflow began to pour through a spillway excavated by Pakistani authorities. On approximately 20 July, the lake attained a maximum depth of 119 meters and a torrent at least 9 meters deep issued over the spillway, according to Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). To date, the natural dam is holding and eroding slowly. However, the threat of a catastrophic outburst flood remains.

[1] Lakes impounded by moraines may be considered hazardous in glaciated areas throughout the world because dams can fail suddenly producing destructive floods with peak discharges far in excess of normal flows. Here we present a comprehensive case study in the Zurich, Switzerland, area that reveals several independent lines of evidences for the occurrence of a Late Pleistocene (∼13,760 calibrated years B.P.) moraine breach and subsequent Lake Zurich outburst (discharge volume ∼2.5 km3). We use seismic and core data in order to track and date the geological fingerprint of this event. Data from areas downstream of the lake show coarse-grained massive (>25 m thick) reworked morainic deposits behind four breached zones. In Lake Zurich, sedimentary structures recorded in a paleowater depth of ∼36 m indicate strong outburst-induced currents. Hydrodynamic calculations reconstructing the sediment transport capacity explaining the observed bed forms allow estimating averaged outburst discharge to exceed minimum values of ∼2400 m3s−1. The potential maximal magnitude of the outburst is inferred from calculations considering critical flow conditions through the breaches revealing estimated peak discharge of ∼20,600 m3s−1. We also discuss long-term causes and short-term trigger mechanisms of the dam failure that occurred several thousand years after moraine formation and show that it coincides with a reconstructed strong northern alpine earthquake (magnitude >6.5). Our data thus suggest that catastrophic drainage of Lake Zurich was initiated as a consequence of the moraine dam failure that either was triggered by primary earthquake shaking or by secondary effects, such as overtopping by landslide-generated waves.

[1] Hubbard Glacier, the largest temperate tidewater glacier in the world, has been advancing since 1895 AD and has now twice dammed 60-km-long Russell Fjord, once in 1986 and more recently in 2002. This paper focuses on the 2002 event, when a strong spring advance pushed shallow submarine proglacial sediments against Gilbert Point, closing off Russell Fjord by late June. As a consequence, upstream ice flow decelerated from 5 m d−1 to 1.5 m d−1, with flow diverging to either side of Gilbert Point. Lake height reached 15 m asl before intense rains caused lake water to overtop the moraine dam on 14 August 2002. Three cubic kilometers of water were released within 30 hours, with peak discharge reaching 55,000 m3 s−1 24 hours after the flood began. The discharge records for the 1986 and 2002 outbursts differ significantly and reflect differences in lake height (26 m versus 15 m) and dam types (ice versus moraine). The 2002 outburst proceeded in two stages: (1) relatively slow overtopping of the subaerial moraine with downward erosion rates of 1–2 m h−1 with little lateral expansion, (2) followed by faster downward erosion of the submarine moraine (up to 7 m h−1) with rapid lateral expansion of the channel by ice calving (∼7 m h−1). The annual average terminus position at Gilbert Point has remained constant since 2002, although there are seasonal variations of 100–200 m. The deep channel, strong tidal currents, and seasonally warm ocean water appear to have prevented the advance of this segment of the terminus despite the glacier's continued advance elsewhere along its terminus. Sediments are slowly filling in the channel at a rate of about 4 m yr−1, and their steady accumulation may eventually trigger the next closure.

[1] In glaciated catchments, glacier-generated floods (jokulhlaups) put human activity at risk with large, sporadic jokulhlaups accounting for most flood-related fatalities and damage to infrastructure. In studies of jokulhlaup hydrodynamics the view predominates that floodwater travels within a distinct conduit eroded into the underside of a glacier. However, some jokulhlaups produce subglacial responses wholly inconsistent with the conventional theory of drainage. By focusing on Icelandic jokulhlaups this article reassesses how floodwater flows through glaciers. It is argued that two physically separable classes of jokulhlaup exist and that not all jokulhlaups are an upward extrapolation of processes inherent in events of lesser magnitude and smaller scale. The hydraulic coupling of multiple, nonlinear components to the flood circuit of a glacier can induce extreme responses, including pressure impulses in subglacial drainage. Representing such complexity in mathematical form should be the basis for upcoming research, as future modeling results may help to determine the glaciological processes behind Heinrich events. Moreover, such an approach would lead to more accurate, predictive models of jokulhlaup timing and intensity.

[1] Hidden Creek Lake (HCL), an ice-marginal lake impounded by Kennicott Glacier, Wrangell Mountains, Alaska, fills annually to ∼20 to 30 × 106 m3 and then drains subglacially within 2 to 3 days. During the 1999 and 2000 jokulhlaups, we carried out a series of planned observations around the lake and in the Kennicott River, which drains the glacier. Approximately 20% of the lake volume was contained within a subglacial water “wedge” beneath the ice dam. The entire volume of the lake drains through the wedge; hydraulic head loss through this constriction may be responsible for the fairly symmetrical shape of the HCL outflow hydrographs, deduced from lake level records, basin hypsometry, and collapse of the ice dam. The flood hydrographs in the Kennicott River are similar in shape to the outflow hydrographs, and within error, lake volume matched the river flood volume in both years. Up to 12 × 106 m3 of water was temporarily stored within the glacier during the 2000 jokulhlaup. During the 2000 jokulhlaup the background flow in the Kennicott River shifted to a dilute chemical composition. As the HCL jokulhlaup progressed, Donoho Falls Lake filled with water whose chemistry was closer to that of the background flow in Kennicott River than to HCL water. Comparison of these chemical signals with typical summer variations in Kennicott River chemistry suggests that the jokulhlaup created high subglacial water pressure that impeded normal drainage of solute-rich water from a distributed drainage system into a conduit system at the glacier bed and even caused flow direction locally to reverse.

Using repeat-pass satellite synthetic aperture radar interferometry, we develop a methodology to measure flood-induced erosion and deposition and apply it to a record 1996 glacier outburst flood (jokulhlaup) on Skeiðararsandur, Iceland. The procedures include (1) coregistration of backscatter intensity images to observe morphological differences; (2) mapping of interferometric phase correlation to identify preserved and modified surfaces; and (3) construction, correction, and differencing of pre-jokulhlaup and post-jokulhlaup topography. Procedures 1 and 2 are robust and should be widely applicable to other fluvial environments, while procedure 3 is complicated by uncertainties in phase measurement, baseline estimate, and atmospheric effects. After a correction procedure involving interpolation of digital elevation model elevation differences across low-correlation areas, we find ∼4 m of elevation change are required to calculate volumes of erosion or deposition. This condition was satisfied for the 40 km2 proglacial zone of Skeiðararsandur, where we estimate +38×106 m3 of net sediment deposition along the ice margin, −2 ×106 m3 of net erosion in channels downstream, and a total net balance of +13 × 106. These estimates are supported by field observations and survey data collected in 1997.

[1] Dust fluxes are of wide interest because of the effects of dust on climate, oceanic primary productivity, terrestrial biogeochemical cycles, and regolith composition. Estimating long-term dust deposition rates, however, can be difficult, especially in steep, eroding terrain. Here we present a geochemical mass balance method for estimating long-term average rates of dust incorporation into regolith on steadily eroding hillslopes. This method requires measurements of the local regolith production rate and the concentrations of two immobile elements in the regolith, its parent rock, and dust. Dust incorporation rates inferred with this method are averaged over the long timescale of regolith residence on the hillslope (typically 103–105 years), and thus may serve as long-term averages against which modern-day dust fluxes may be compared. We apply this model to 17 field sites in the South Fork of the Salmon River in the Idaho Batholith, where rock and regolith compositions imply that mafic-rich material has been added to the otherwise granitic regolith. We suggest that the most likely source of this mafic material is dust sourced from the same glacial outburst flood sediments that generated the Palouse loess on the Columbia Plateau, and we use the published composition of these sediments to infer dust incorporation rates of 3–13 t km−2 yr−1 at these sites, comparable to modern-day dust fluxes elsewhere in the western United States.