the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
| 07 Jul 2025
Active subglacial lakes in the Canadian Arctic identified by multi-annual ice elevation changes
Abstract. Subglacial lakes influence glacier hydrology, dynamics, and mass balance; however, they are poorly documented outside the polar ice sheets. Here we use high-resolution digital elevation models from 2011 to 2021 and perform regression analysis to characterize 37 subglacial lakes (35 of which are newly identified) across the Canadian Arctic, a region that loses more than 50 gigatonnes of glacier ice yearly. These lakes have an area of 0.3–48.5 km2 and influence surface elevation by 10–150 m, corresponding to a water volume of 0.003–4.5 km3. We classify them into (1) classic subglacial lakes, (2) terminal subglacial lakes at places where two glacier termini converge and coalesce, and (3) partial subglacial lakes with an area of open water at the ice margin. Types 2 and 3 are new and are nearly exclusive in the Canadian Arctic. Lake activities negatively correlate with regional mass balance, implying a need for fine-scale monitoring in the era of accelerated glacier loss.
Competing interests: At least one of the (co-)authors is a member of the editorial board of TC.
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Notice on discussion status
The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.
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Preprint
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Supplement
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The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.
- Preprint
(14310 KB) - Metadata XML
-
Supplement
(12890 KB) - BibTeX
- EndNote
- Final revised paper
Journal article(s) based on this preprint
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
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CC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-2707', Jérémie Bonneau, 30 Jul 2025
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AC1: 'Reply on CC1', Whyjay Zheng, 11 Sep 2025
Dear Dr. Bonneau,
Thank you very much for the insightful comment and for sharing the work of Antropova et al.
For Lake 1, the grounding line information is indeed very relevant. We will add it to the revised manuscript. We digitized Figure 12 in the Antropova et al. paper and compared the grounding line positions with our lake outline. Our quick result (as shown in the attached screenshot; the grounding line colors correspond to those used in Figure 12b) indicates that the lake area, identified by its drainage event in 2016, is very close to the grounding line (HLLW) in 2011. Based on ERS-2 data, the lake was located in the grounded zone of 2011, and some potential activities can be identified using SAR interferometry (as shown in the second attached screenshot, Figure 5b from Antropova et al., with the lake location labeled by a red square). We do not have the grounding line information from 2016; however, the lake was likely still within the grounded zone, as it would be challenging to depict a mechanism that lowered the ice surface elevation by ~20 m within one year if the ice had already achieved flotation. Â
Thank you for sharing the ocean mooring data. It is exciting to see such a temporal correlation between the Lake 3a-c drainage events and the thermal anomaly from nearby ocean water! A detailed analysis of individual lake(s) might be beyond the scope of this manuscript, but the subglacial lakes in Milne glacier are worth a follow-up project to understand the lake dynamics based on various data sets. We will be in touch to discuss future plans!
Whyjay Zheng (on behalf of the authors)
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AC1: 'Reply on CC1', Whyjay Zheng, 11 Sep 2025
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RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-2707', Chang-Qing Ke, 11 Sep 2025
The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-2707/egusphere-2025-2707-RC1-supplement.pdf
- AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Whyjay Zheng, 06 Nov 2025
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RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-2707', David Burgess, 25 Sep 2025
The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-2707/egusphere-2025-2707-RC2-supplement.pdf
- AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Whyjay Zheng, 06 Nov 2025
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
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CC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-2707', Jérémie Bonneau, 30 Jul 2025
Hello,
Thanks for the interesting study!I think Lake 1 might be where Milne Glacier became ungrounded during the study period, please have a look at Antropova et al. 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2024.114478
Regarding Lake 3a-c, I think we might have seen the drainage in the ocean mooring temperature data (warm anomaly in winter when there should be negligible subglacial discharge; see attached figure). It would make sense as the discharge of those lakes (around 0.4 km3) over a couple months is of the same order of magnitude than subglacial discharge from surface melt (around 50 m3/s).Â
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you want to discuss this further!Regards,
Jérémie Bonneau; jbonneau@mail.ubc.ca
Â
Â
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AC1: 'Reply on CC1', Whyjay Zheng, 11 Sep 2025
Dear Dr. Bonneau,
Thank you very much for the insightful comment and for sharing the work of Antropova et al.
For Lake 1, the grounding line information is indeed very relevant. We will add it to the revised manuscript. We digitized Figure 12 in the Antropova et al. paper and compared the grounding line positions with our lake outline. Our quick result (as shown in the attached screenshot; the grounding line colors correspond to those used in Figure 12b) indicates that the lake area, identified by its drainage event in 2016, is very close to the grounding line (HLLW) in 2011. Based on ERS-2 data, the lake was located in the grounded zone of 2011, and some potential activities can be identified using SAR interferometry (as shown in the second attached screenshot, Figure 5b from Antropova et al., with the lake location labeled by a red square). We do not have the grounding line information from 2016; however, the lake was likely still within the grounded zone, as it would be challenging to depict a mechanism that lowered the ice surface elevation by ~20 m within one year if the ice had already achieved flotation. Â
Thank you for sharing the ocean mooring data. It is exciting to see such a temporal correlation between the Lake 3a-c drainage events and the thermal anomaly from nearby ocean water! A detailed analysis of individual lake(s) might be beyond the scope of this manuscript, but the subglacial lakes in Milne glacier are worth a follow-up project to understand the lake dynamics based on various data sets. We will be in touch to discuss future plans!
Whyjay Zheng (on behalf of the authors)
-
AC1: 'Reply on CC1', Whyjay Zheng, 11 Sep 2025
-
RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-2707', Chang-Qing Ke, 11 Sep 2025
The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-2707/egusphere-2025-2707-RC1-supplement.pdf
- AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Whyjay Zheng, 06 Nov 2025
-
RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-2707', David Burgess, 25 Sep 2025
The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-2707/egusphere-2025-2707-RC2-supplement.pdf
- AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Whyjay Zheng, 06 Nov 2025
Peer review completion
Journal article(s) based on this preprint
Data sets
Inventory of subglacial water in the Canadian Arctic Whyjay Zheng, Wesley Van Wychen, Tian Li https://doi.org/10.30238/TPIDR.DB_ISWCA/Dataset
Model code and software
whyjz/ac-subglacial-lakes Whyjay Zheng, Tian Li https://github.com/whyjz/ac-subglacial-lakes
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Wesley Van Wychen
Tsutomu Yamanokuchi
The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.
- Preprint
(14310 KB) - Metadata XML
-
Supplement
(12890 KB) - BibTeX
- EndNote
- Final revised paper
Hello,
Thanks for the interesting study!
I think Lake 1 might be where Milne Glacier became ungrounded during the study period, please have a look at Antropova et al. 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2024.114478
Regarding Lake 3a-c, I think we might have seen the drainage in the ocean mooring temperature data (warm anomaly in winter when there should be negligible subglacial discharge; see attached figure). It would make sense as the discharge of those lakes (around 0.4 km3) over a couple months is of the same order of magnitude than subglacial discharge from surface melt (around 50 m3/s).Â
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you want to discuss this further!
Regards,
Jérémie Bonneau; jbonneau@mail.ubc.ca
Â
Â