Sunday: various places - Jökullsárlón

4 important questions on Sunday: various places - Jökullsárlón

How come this water is so salty/high in EC?

Temp: 2.5
EC: 22.7 milisimons/cl (up to now it was micro) thus this is 20 000 microsimons

Thus beyond brackish, almost salty water. Even though we expect freshwater from the glacier, thus 20-30 micros/cl.

salt water flows into system during high tide and filsl up part of the lake and collects along edges. In the heart of lake it will be more meltwater, thus lower EC. This also means it is relatively warm.

At heart: close to 0. During low tide also sides temps are close to 0.

Fig 54 Energy availability

Energy available for melt of icebergs and glaciers.

Air energy is increasing (climate change), but has realtively little effect.

Radiation is increasing.

But very big impact is heat from seawater, has big impact on glacier melt.

Flows:
At high tide there still is a large outflow from glacierwater to the sea.

Meantime: sea levels rise, at lower end of same flow you can have seawater flow coming in. Density is higher and collects at the sides.

Nunatak: rock outcrops in glacier. As glacier is shrinking, nunataks are increasing or even dominant, with some ice in between.

Impossible for ice to flow over nunataks, maybe waterfalls will develop and iceflow will follow sides to end up at lake. So melt occurs, but does not grow anymore. Lake will expand very fast and icebergs will slowly disappear.
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What happens underneath the galcier and at the bottom of the lake?

Gully up to 250 m deep (below sealevel). U-shaped valley.

Soon this will all be lake.

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