glacier lake

Imaggeo On Monday: Rock flour in suspension in Lake Louise

Matteo Del Soldato August 29, 2022

Rock flour in suspension in Lake Louise. Credit: Manon Berger (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

The waters of Lake Lousie in the Canadian Rockies are cold and fresh, supplied direct from the glaciers nestled in the mountains, but as the water from the glacier melts it carries with it tiny particles of rock dust that are also transported into the lake. As you can see in this image, the particulate rock matter, held in suspension in the lake, creates this beautiful pale turquoise colour, that ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Carving polar canyons

Sara Mynott December 23, 2013

This week Ian Joughin, a research scientist from the Polar Science Center at the University of Washington, takes us on the polar express to put glacial processes into perspective and find out what makes a moulin… This canyon formed when a melt lake on the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet overflowed and created a stream that extended out toward a crevasse field. This outflow stream filled a creva ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: Getting a handle on glacial lakes

Sara Mynott November 21, 2013

Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are caused when masses of meltwater are released from behind a glacier moraine. Moraines are piles of unconsolidated debris that have either eroded from the glacier valley or have been deposited by melting glaciers. When they fail, a huge volume of water can be released, threatening populations further down the valley. Moraine failure can be caused by avalanche ...[Read More]