CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
Search Results
Author : Clague, J.J.; and Evans, S.G.
Date : 1997
Title : The 1994 jokulhlaup at Farrow Creek, British Columbia, Canada
Publication : Geomorphology
Issue : 19(1-2):
Page(s) : 77-87
Abstract
An ice-dammed lake at the margin of Goddard Glacier in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia, drained suddenly in July 1994, producing a jokulhlaup that travelled 11 km down Farrow Creek to Chilko Lake. The jokulhlaup transported and deposited large quantities of sediment, destroyed tracts of forest, and severely modified the channel of Farrow Creek. The flood had a peak discharge of between 100 and 300 m3 s-1 and, judging from its geomorphic effects, was much larger than normal rainfall- and snowmelt-generated floods in the basin. The lake drained via a subglacial tunnel at the base of Goddard Glacier following a lengthy period of glacier downwasting and retreat. Drainage occurred when a passageway developed at the base of the weakened dam. The escaping waters rapidly enlarged this passageway, producing a large tunnel which has not resealed since the jokulhlaup. Goddard Lake is similar to other short-lived glacier-dammed lakes in western Canada that have developed near the toes of glaciers since the end of the Little Ice Age and have disappeared after one of a few outbursts. It contrasts with other glacier-dammed lakes, commonly located farther from glacier termini, that have lengthy, stable, pre-jokulhlaup phases and long periods of cyclic or sporadic jokulhlaup activity.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology