jury-rigged: Ice sheet Hiking

Each time I get on ice I fall more in love with it. It feels like a different world. One where every feature is carefully sculpted; carved by high pressures, slow movement driven by its own mass, and the sun, melting pits where ever dust collects. The icy melt waters are just warm enough to cut river beds, caverns and moulins; or just cold enough to freeze into icy ribbons and stalagmites. The features are clean; characterized by glowing blues, blacks and bright whites. Shadows give the features depth and definition. Plus...blue is my favorite color.

On this hike, we fastened crampons to our wellies and walked onto the Russel Glacier near our sub-glacial site. The goal was to explore the moraine and river systems along the edge of the ice, and look to see if the river running along the glacier showed any obvious diversions that would route it under the ice, and into the flow we sampled... The other motivation was simply to explore. :) We found text book examples of the complex water ways that characterize glacial surfaces in the melt season. Intricate networks of rivers, deep cut meandering valleys, some flowing into crevasses or moulins, some forming waterfalls or spouts, others pooling into icy bottomed azure ponds.

There was no clear evidence of the river, rerouting and flowing under the ice. Being on the surface, however, provides a striking perspective on the amount of water running off the ice sheet, and the complexities of melt-water paths and fate. While the term supra-glacial flow is clear (water flowing on the top of the ice), sub-glacial flow seems to be a more complex term, and perhaps more precisely put in question form: What is sub-glacial flow? A question with answers that may vary based on what you are studying. Sub-glacial chemical weathering, or physical glacial dynamics, such as uplift, floating and movement? How long does water need to remain under the ice for sub-glacial, microbial niches to form? or for the water to carry a chemical signal indicative of basal rock weathering? Are these two factors linked? likely so!

The final fate of the melt-water runoff is obvious from the swollen, sediment laden rivers delivering both mineral nutrients and massive volumes of fresh water to the ocean...there is a lot of ice here...

Jump Kyla! Fun with corel draw. If I've edited the photos, I'll make a note of it :)

crevasses, bridges, azure rivers, waterfalls, spouts, ridges, valleys, moulins and caves with scalloped, cathedal like ceilings that glowing an eternal blue.