Glacier advance, ice-marginal lakes and routing of meltwater and sediment: Russell Glacier, Greenland Peter G. Knight, 1 Richard I.Waller, 2 Carrie J. Patterson, 3 Alison P. Jones, 4 Zoe P. Robinson 1 1 Schoolof Earth Sciencesand Geography, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST55BG, England 2 Schoolof Earth and Environmental Sciences, Universityof Greenwich, Chatham Maritime, Kent ME4 4TB, England 3 Minnesota Geological Survey/Universityof Minnesota, 2642 UniversityAve., St Paul, Minnesota 55114-1057, U.S.A. 4 Department of Geography, Universityof Liverpool, Liverpool L693BX, England ABSTRACT . The ice-sheet margin at Russell Glacier,West Greenland, advanced 7ma ^1 between1968 and1999. As the ice advancedover moraine ridges, small changes in position caused major changes in the routing of proglacial water and sediment.These includedchanges inthe distribution of ice-marginal lakes, inthe periodic drainage of ice- dammedlakes,intheroutingandsedimentcontentofmeltwaterdrainingintotheprogla- cial zone, and in the release of sediment from the moraines by erosion and mass move- ments. Proglacial hydrology and sediment flux appear to be controlled not simply by glacier mass balance, but by evolving ice-marginal geomorphology, which must be ac- counted for inpalaeoenvironmental interpretationof proglacial sediments. INTRODUCTION Ice-marginal lakes at Russell Glacier, part of a lobe of the West Greenland ice sheet Fig.1), arewell documented e.g. Sugden andothers,1985; Gordon,1986; Russell anddeJong, 1988; Scholz and others, 1988; Russell, 1989; Russell and others,1990;KnightandRussell,1993).Theircharacteristics depend primarily on the position of the ice margin relative to surrounding topography, and their behaviour stability or periodic drainage) strongly influences proglacialhydrol- ogy and sediment routing. This paper reports how recent changes inthe position of the ice margin have had a dispro- portionate effect on the proglacial area through their influ- ence on ice-marginal lakes and meltwater routing. LocationsofsitesmentionedinthetextareshowninFigures 1and 2.Table1summarizes details of the lakes. OBSERVATIONS Ice margin The ice margin in this area was in recession for about 50yearsafter1920,buthasreadvancedduringthepastthree decadesWeidick,1991;Weidickandothers,1992;VanTaten- hove andothers,1995), consistent withobservedpresent-day thickening of the western sector of the ice sheet Thomas and others, 1998). Russell Glacier reflects these regional trends. Aerial photographs from 1968 and 1985, and field Journalof Glaciology , Vol. 46, No .154, 2000 Fig.1.The northern lateral margin and snout of Russell Glacier, indicating the positions ofsites referred to in the text and the location of the area of Figure 2. 423 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. 18 Dec 2021 at 18:07:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use.