Seasonal glacier motion variations and underlying hydro-mechanical processes at the Argentiere Glacier, French Alps

Abstract. Subglacial hydrology controls basal sliding of hard-bedded glaciers by modulating basal drag through changes in ice–bed separation. Yet, the underlying mechanisms that control ice–bed separation and its links with basal friction remain poorly understood. In this study, we contribute to a better understanding of this problem by evaluating spatial and temporal changes in bed separation in relation to changes in glacier horizontal velocity using three years of continuous and dense GPS records from Glacier d’Argentière (French Alps). We confirm a previous study showing that spatial and temporal variations in glacier vertical motion mainly reflect changes in ice–bed separation, as they cannot be explained by variations in internal strain rates. We find that the ice–bed separation velocity is anti-correlated with subglacial water discharge, being positive in winter in the absence of surface melt and negative during summer melt. We suggest that this behavior results from basal cavities being weakly connected in winter, allowing them to fill slowly under low water input from englacial storage release or basal melt, and then rapidly transitioning to a connected state in summer, enabling efficient drainage of surface meltwater and reduced cavity sizes. Interestingly, changes in horizontal velocity are well correlated, both in time and space, with changes in ice–bed separation and can be quantitatively compared with modeled values related to subsequent variations in basal cavity size. These observational findings contrast strongly with previous observations in steeper parts of Glacier d’Argentière, where seasonal motion was positively correlated with subglacial water discharge and was argued to be primarily controlled by cavities being connected year-round. We discuss the potential mechanisms underlying these discrepancies and how they may also explain observations of seasonal glacier dynamics in Greenland.