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. In cold and arid climates, small glaciers with cold accumulationzones are often thought to be entirely cold based. However, scattering inground-penetrating radar (GPR) measurements on the Rikha Samba Glacier inthe Nepal Himalayas suggests a large amount of temperate ice that seems tobe influenced by the presence of crevassed areas. We used a coupledthermo-mechanical model forced by a firn model accounting for firn heatingto interpret the observed thermal regime. Using a simple energy conservationapproach, we show that the addition of water percolation and refreezing increvassed areas explains these observations. Model experiments show thatboth steady and transient thermal regimes are significantly affected bylatent heat release in crevassed areas. This makes half of the glacier basetemperate, resulting in an ice dynamic mainly controlled by basal frictioninstead of ice deformation. The timescale of thermal regime change, inresponse to atmospheric warming, is also greatly diminished, with apotential switch from cold to temperate basal ice in 50–60 years in theupper part of the glacier instead of the 100–150 years that it would takewithout the effect of the crevasses. This study highlights the crucial roleof water percolation through the crevasses on the thermal regime of glaciersand validates a simple method to account for it in glacier thermo-mechanicalmodels.

The influence of water percolation through crevasses on the thermal regime of a Himalayan mountain glacier