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Wastage of the Klutlan Ice-Cored Moraines, Yukon Territory, Canada1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Fletcher G. Driscoll Jr.
Fletcher G. Driscoll Jr.*
Affiliation:
28 Peninsula Road, White Bear Lake, Minnesota 55110 USA
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Abstract

A series of ice-cored Neoglacial moraines at the terminus of the Klutlan Glacier covers an area of 90 km2. Studies were made to determine empirically how long ice persisted in the Klutlan moraines and to develop models that can accurately predict wastage rates under current climatic conditions. A meltout curve based on climatological data reflects the sum of three melting processes: surficial melting, melting by lake water, and melting by geothermal heat. About 950 yr are required to melt 180 m of ice with a debris concentration of 1%, or about 1200 yr for a 1.5% debris load. Another meltout curve, based on seismic data, suggests total meltout in about 875 yr. When all geologic factors are considered, the empirical meltout curve is remarkably similar to that derived by considering the major heat-flux parameters. Meltout rates can be predicted if (1) the fundamental climatic parameters can be ascertained, and (2) the sediment concentration in the ice is known.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , July 1980 , pp. 31 - 49
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

1

Contribution 200, Limnological Research Center, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minn. 55455.

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