Abstract
This chapter discusses change and variability in suspended sediment and solute concentration, load and yield for the Jökulsá á Sólheimasandi glacial river system in southern Iceland. Using a combination of low-frequency Icelandic Hydrological Survey data for the 1973–1988 period and the author’s results from intensive monitoring of water quality in the 1988 melt season, variations are examined at three timescales: inter-annual, seasonal and diurnal. The combined yield of suspended sediment and dissolved material is 14,5001 km-2a-1, equivalent to an erosion rate of 5.4 mm a-1, which is one of the highest values recorded anywhere. Slight restrictions on suspended sediment concentration, however, possibly associated with longer-term exhaustion effects, may now exist. One reason for caution in the interpretation of these estimates, however, is the pronounced variability, at all timescales, of runoff and sediment output from this basin, particularly in relation to the low-frequency data available. High seasonality of flow and sediment output typical of glaciofluvial systems occurs here, and a clear peak in total flux from the system emerges in the July-September period, when discharge, suspended sediment loads and solute loads all reach their maxima.
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Lawler, D. (1991). Sediment and Solute Yield from the Jökulsá á Sólheimasandi Glacierized River Basin, Southern Iceland. In: Maizels, J.K., Caseldine, C. (eds) Environmental Change in Iceland: Past and Present. Glaciology and Quaternary Geology, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3150-6_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3150-6_19
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