Geo-Hydrologic and Thermometric Observations in the Vicinity of the Columbia Icefield, Alberta and British Columbia, Canada

Abstract The Columbia Icefield rests upon limestones containing natural caves that drain waters from the glacier sole. The principal cave is sealed at one end by an extrusion of glacier ice 300 m below the icefield surface. The hydrologic regime of the cave indicates that the modern icefield is temperate in character and that water is present at the glacier sole throughout the year. An interpretation of the air temperature pattern in the cave suggests that the geothermal flux to the glacier is only 10-40% of the expected value because heat is abstracted by melt water circulating through the rock. U, Th and O isotopic analyses of calcite speleothems further indicate that the base of the icefield has probably been temperate throughout the past 150000 years. The cave was inundated when glaciers expanded during the classical Wisconsinan main Würm period. The inundation implies maintenance of a permanent water table at some hundreds of meters above the base in a valley glacier 750—800 m in depth.