Basal melt at NorthGRIP modeled from borehole, ice-core and radio-echo sounder observations

Abstract

From temperature measurements down through the 3001 m deep borehole at the North Greenland Icecore Project (NorthGRIP) drill site, it is now clear that the ice at the base, 3080 m below the surface, is at the pressure-melting point. This is supported by the measurements on the ice core where the annual-layer thicknesses show there is bottom melting at the site and upstream from the borehole. Surface velocity measurements, internal radio-echo layers, borehole and ice-core data are used to constrain a time-dependent flow model simulating flow along the north-northwest-trending ice-ridge flowline, leading to the NorthGRIP site. Also time-dependent melt rates along the flowline are calculated with a heat-flow model. The results show the geothermal heat flow varies from 50 to 200 mW m 2 along the 100 km section of the modeled flowline. The melt rate at the NorthGRIP site is 0.75 cm a 1, but the deep ice in the North GRIP core originated 50 km upstream and has experienced melt rates as high as 1.1 cm a 1. © International Glaciological Society.