Vapor transport and sublimation on Mullins Glacier, Antarctica

We utilize an environmental chamber capable of recreating the extreme polar conditions of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) of Antarctica to investigate the sublimation rate of the Mullins Valley debris-covered glacier (hereafter Mullins Glacier), reportedly one of the oldest debris-covered alpine glaciers in the world. We measure ice loss via sublimation beneath sediment thicknesses ranging from 0 to 69 mm; from this, we determine an effective diffusivity for Fickian vapor transport through Mullins till of (5.2±0.3)×10−6 m2s−1 at −10 °C. We use this value, coupled with micrometeorological data from Mullins Valley (atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, and soil temperature) to model the sublimation rate of buried glacier ice near the terminus of Mullins Glacier, where the overlying till thickness approaches 70 cm. We find that the ice-lowering rate during the modeled year (2011) was 0.066 mm under 70 cm of till, a value which is in line with previous estimates for exceedingly slow rates of ice sublimation. These results provide further evidence supporting the probable antiquity of Mullins Glacier ice and overall landscape stability in upland regions of the MDV.