Controls on interannual and seasonal terminus velocity and position of Yahtse Glacier in SE Alaska

Abstract:

We construct a 30 year velocity time-series for comparison with recent studies on the submarine melt rate (Bartholomaus et al., 2013), calving rate (Bartholomaus et al., 2013b), velocities (McNabb et al., 2014), and subglacial discharge (Bartholomaus et al., 2015) of Yahtse Glacier in southeast Alaska. Velocities are constructed from feature tracking on Landsat, ALOS, and ASTER satellite imagery spanning 1985-2015.

Yahtse is undergoing an interannual advance of ~82 m yr-1 that is concurrent with deceleration between 1996 and 2015 of -0.55 m day-1yr-1 measured 2.5km down-glacier from the icefall. We estimate that up to 35% of the slowdown is due to divergence associated with thickening near the terminus of ~7 m yr-1measured by differencing WorldView and SRTM DEMs. Much of the remaining deceleration may be due to greater basal and lateral drag as ongoing advance increases the contact area between the terminus and bedrock.

We observe a seasonal cycle in centerline terminus speeds superimposed on the interannual deceleration. Terminus speeds climb from a minimum in October to a maximum in May, then decline until October. The timing of this cycle is in phase with the seasonality of subglacial discharge at the front of Yahtse and salinity levels measured in the Gulf of Alaska, which agrees with models of subglacial channel development proposed for many glaciers.

Seasonal speed changes measured 1 km up-glacier from the front are associated with terminus advance and retreat. The terminus is in a retracted position following the deceleration to a minimum speed in October and elevated submarine melt rates in summer and early autumn. The front holds this position from November through February as speeds there accelerate to their seasonal maximum and submarine melt is reduced. Yahtse Glacier then advances between 200 and 500 m during the spring as frontal speeds decrease by ~10% from their highest level. This slowdown may be caused by a decrease in buoyancy due to the terminus advancing into shallower fjord waters, perhaps approaching a terminal moraine.