Simulated Meltwater Oxygen Isotope Data for Assessing Greenland Geothermal Heat Flow

Geothermal heat flow under the Greenland Ice Sheet is largely unknown, with existing model estimates disagreeing substantially. Jakob Gradl's 2026 study simulates how different geothermal heat flow estimates affect the production and oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of basal meltwater. The results suggest the isotopic composition of subglacial meltwater could be a proxy to improve heat flow estimates.

Use Cases

• Validate geothermal heat flow models based on simulated meltwater oxygen isotope values.
• Analyze the sensitivity of subglacial meltwater isotope signals to different heat flow distributions.
• Study the influence of subglacial drainage transport and mixing on observed isotope variability.

Strengths

• Simulated data addresses a key unknown in Greenland ice sheet dynamics: geothermal heat flow.
• Results show measurable differences in δ18O values (on the order of a few permille) between model scenarios.
• The dataset is associated with a proof-of-concept study published on figshare under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Limitations

• The dataset is a 16.6 MB PDF; the underlying structured data format and column definitions are unknown.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for quantitative analysis.
• Freshness should be verified as the last update date is in the future (2026-04-28).

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Jakob Gradl

Collection Method

Simulation based on different geothermal heat flow model estimates.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-28 05:27:30

Geography

Greenland, specifically North-East Greenland as mentioned in the study.