Multiple glacier surges observed with airborne and spaceborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar

Abstract

Mechanical properties of glacier beds impose fundamental constraints on glacier flow across a wide range of timescales [1]. Despite their importance in governing glacier dynamics, basal mechanics are not well understood, particularly where glaciers are underlain by deformable till [2]. While some till samples have been retrieved from beneath several glaciers and tested in laboratories in order to ascertain till rheology [3, 4], limitations on clast sizes imposed by apparatus dimensions and the difficulty of understanding and reproducing subglacial environments in the lab necessitate observations of the mechanical properties of in situ tills [5]. Such observations are sparse, owing to the inherent difficulty in attaining them, and this observational paucity has helped foment persistent uncertainties concerning the proper rheology of subglacial till and the rheological dependence on mechanical, thermal, and hydrological forcing [1, 2].

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