Articles | Volume 11, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-381-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-381-2017
Research article
 | 
02 Feb 2017
Research article |  | 02 Feb 2017

Antarctic subglacial lakes drain through sediment-floored canals: theory and model testing on real and idealized domains

Sasha P. Carter, Helen A. Fricker, and Matthew R. Siegfried
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Short summary
We use a new process-scale model for the drainage of active subglacial lakes in Antarctica that considers channel incision into the soft sedimentary bed. Compared to models with ice-incised channels, our model better reproduces magnitudes and recurrence intervals of active subglacial lake fill–drain cycles derived from satellite altimetry observations.