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Suicide Basin is a glacier-fed lake that branches off Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska. Since 2011, Suicide Basin has been collecting melt- and rainwater each summer, creating a temporary glacier-dammed lake. Water that accumulates typically gets released through channels that run beneath the glacier. These channels are normally blocked by ice, but if the water pressure gets too high the channel breaks open, rapidly draining the basin in what is known as an “outburst flood”. In past years, these events have led to flooding along Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River in the most heavily populated neighborhood of Juneau. Because of the threats posed to infrastructure in the Mendenhall Valley, it is critical that...
Categories: Project;
Types: Map Service,
OGC WFS Layer,
OGC WMS Layer,
OGC WMS Service;
Tags: 2018,
Alaska,
Alaska CASC,
CASC,
Data Visualization & Tools, All tags...
Data Visualization & Tools,
Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather,
Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather,
Extreme Weather,
Extreme Weather,
Glaciers and Permafrost,
Glaciers and Permafrost,
Projects by Region,
Rivers, Streams and Lakes,
Rivers, Streams and Lakes,
Science Tools for Managers,
Science Tools for Managers,
Water, Coasts and Ice,
Water, Coasts and Ice, Fewer tags
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Abstract (from The Cryosphere): We combine a glacier outburst flood model with a glacier flow model to investigate decadal to centennial variations in outburst floods originating from ice-dammed marginal basins. Marginal basins can form due to the retreat and detachment of tributary glaciers, a process that often results in remnant ice being left behind. The remnant ice, which can act like an ice shelf or break apart into a pack of icebergs, limits a basin's water storage capacity but also exerts pressure on the underlying water and promotes drainage. We find that during glacier retreat there is a strong, nearly linear relationship between flood water volume and peak discharge for individual basins, despite large...
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