Fountain Glacier hydrological event, 21-22 July 2014An unusual spell of heavy rain resulted in marked changes to the drainage system. Of note was the ponding of water at the glacier bed, which resulted in numerous springs of brown sediment-rich water spouting at the glacier surface along the various fractures. The water, pouring of the ice cliffs at the glacier margin, produced some impressive waterfalls. | |||
 Heavy rain stored in the lower levels of the glacier interacted with basal sediment, and with sufficient hydrostatic pressure escaped at the surface producing unusual waterfalls. |  A distant telephoto view of two point-sources of the basally derived water. |  Detail of water-flow as it poured over the ice cliff edge at the true left-hand margin. |  Water escape at the glacier surface showed that it was controlled by different ice structure – here a low-angle fracture, a rotated crevasse trace. |
 Water escaping from an irregular longitudinal fracture, one of many formed orthogonally to the ice margin. |  Boulder on the ice surface interrupting the flow of water. |  Close-up of water emerging from a longitudinal fracture, denoted by the blue ice vein. |  Water spreading out over the glacier surface after emerging from a fracture. |
 Waterfalls of pale brown meltwater pouring over the left-lateral ice-marginal cliffs. |  A curtain of pale brown water pours over the apparently horizontal (but inward-dipping) crevasse traces at the left-lateral ice-marginal cliffs. | ||
| Photos Michael Hambrey, July 2014 | |||