Water flow through temperate glaciers

Abstract. Understanding water movement through a glacier is fundamental to several critical issues in glaci-ology, including glacier dynamics, glacier-induced floods, and the prediction of runoff from glacierized drainage basins. To this end we have synthesized a conceptual model of water movement through a temper-ate glacier from the surface to the outlet stream. Pro-cesses that regulate the rate and distribution of water input at the glacier surface and that regulate water movement from the surface to the bed play important but commonly neglected roles in glacier hydrology. Where a glacier is covered by a layer of porous, perme-able firn (the accumulation zone), the flux of water to the glacier interior varies slowly because the firn tempo-rarily stores water and thereby smooths out variations i