Suspended sediment yield from glacier basins

An analysis of suspended sediment and discharge yield, and catchment characteristics from a sample of 90 glacier basins is presented. The suspended sediment yield per unit area for all but one of the sample basins exceeds the global average as defined by Walling & Kleo (1979). There is no significant relationship between specific suspended sediment yield and either basin or glacier area, but yield does decrease with distance of the monitoring site from the glacier and with Borland's (1961) lambda, both surrogates for availability of areas of sediment storage. Basins containing predominantly warm-based glaciers produce higher suspended sediment yields than those containing predominantly coldbased glaciers. Within the group of basins containing warm-based glaciers, Icelandic basins, whose glaciers are also subject to recent volcanic activity, produce some of the highest suspended sediment yields per unit basin area.