L’hydrologie, la géochimie et la météorologie du petit bassin versant glaciaire à pergélisol continu du glacier Austre Lovén (10 km2, Spitsberg occidental, 79°N) ont été étudiées au cours des trois années hydrologiques 2010, 2011 et 2012 en vue de mieux définir le rôle des eaux souterraines de la nappe supra-pergélisol dans les flux d’eau et de solutés en sortie de bassin.Le travail de thèse a montré que la période d’écoulement survient en moyenne sur une période de 141 jours (σ = 4,5 jours) comprise entre les 9-10 mai et 26-27 octobre. La lame d’eau moyenne est de 0,940 m.a-1 (σ = 0,156 m.a-1) et se répartie à 79 % en eau de fonte (54 % de fonte de neige et de glace sur le glacier, 18 % de neige sur les versants et 7 % de neige dans la zone proglaciaire), 18 % en hauteurs de précipitation efficace et 3 % en décharge sous-glaciaire pérenne. Les incertitudes sur la quantification des composantes de l’écoulement et de la lame d’eau écoulée elle-même ne permettent pas une quantification plus précise des flux en eau de la nappe supra-pergélisol. Cette étude montrerait donc qu’en termes de flux d’eau, la composante d’eau souterraine supra-pergélisol pourrait être négligeable et ne constituer qu’un réservoir de transit de l’eau. En effet, le suivi piézométrique montre que la nappe dégèle et regèle à des profondeurs similaires malgré la présence d’épisodes de recharge. Ces recharges qui surviennent majoritairement au profit d’épisodes pluvieux importants (hauteurs cumulées sur 2 à 8 jours supérieures à 20 mm) se déchargent lentement par une alimentation de la rivière par la nappe. Les suivis thermiques du sous-sol ont enfin permis d’établir que le toit du pergélisol supposé se situe à une profondeur de 2,50 m pour une puissance de nappe pouvant atteindre plus d’1,70 m, soit 70 % de la couche active. Par ailleurs, les données thermiques montrent des températures du sous-sol à moins de 0,5°C de la température de dégel, laissant supposer une dégradation prochaine du pergélisol avec par conséquent un accroissement de l’épaisseur de l’aquifère de la nappe supra-pergélisol (couche active).Les données de géochimie montrent une augmentation de la minéralisation des eaux de surface du bassin par des contributions d’eau souterraine le long des cours d’eau, preuve que les eaux de la nappe supra-pergélisol impactent les flux de solutés aux exutoires. Les analyses en chimie élémentaire (n = 178) conduites sur les différents composants du système hydrologique montrent que les eaux du bassin possèdent un faciès sulfaté-bicarbonaté calcique à bicarbonaté-sulfaté calcique lié à l’altération des carbonates et des sulfures des moraines récentes et dans l’altération d’aluminosilicates dans les moraines plus anciennes. Les données d’isotopie du strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr  ; n = 8) corroborent un apport du calcium dissous par les aluminosilicates de par leur signature radiogénique. Les teneurs en ¹³C du CID des eaux (n = 30) sont cohérentes aussi bien avec un système ouvert sur le CO₂ du sol (à -20 ‰) et le CO₂ atmosphérique (entre -6,5 et -8 ‰) qu’avec un système fermé sur le CO₂ où la signature de δ ¹³C des carbonates marins (à 0 ‰) peut s’imposer par dissolution. Les données d’isotopie de la molécule d’eau (n = 592) ont permis d’identifier les signatures des différentes familles d’eau composant l’hydrosystème et de proposer un modèle de mélange entre 4 pôles expliquant les signatures des eaux aux exutoires du bassin versant : eaux de fonte, précipitations estivales, eaux sous-glaciaires et eaux de la nappe supra-pergélisol. Le couplage entre les teneurs en ¹⁸O et SO²₄⁻ des eaux aux exutoires confirme ce modèle de mélange, le renforçant même en termes de variations temporelles. La mesure de ³H-³He tendrait vers un temps de séjour court tandis que les premières mesures d’activité ¹⁴C (n = 15) sont faibles, renseignant une minéralisation des eaux par un carbone ancien. / The hydrology, geochemistry and meteorology of a small, Arctic glacial watershed under continuous permafrost conditions (Austre Lovén glacier catchment area of 10 km2, western Spitsbergen, 79°N) were studied during the three hydrological years 2010, 2011 and 2012 to better define the role of suprapermafrost groundwater on both water and solute fluxes at basin outlet. The runoff period occurs on average over a 141 days period (σ = 4.5 days) between May 9-10 and October 26-27. The mean total discharge is 0.940 m a-1 (σ = 0.156 m a-1) divided into 79 % of meltwater (54 % of snowmelt and icemelt from the glacier, 18 % of snowmelt from the slopes and 7 % of snowmelt from the proglacial area), 18 % of effective summer precipitation and 3% of perennial subglacial discharge. Uncertainties in quantifying the runoff components and the total discharge itself don’t allow more precise quantification of water fluxes from the suprapermafrost groundwater by water balance. This study would so show that the suprapermafrost groundwater component would be negligible in the water balance and only constitute a transit tank for water. Indeed, the potentiometric level monitoring shows that the water-table thaws and freezes at similar depths despite recharge events occurring during summer. Those recharge events mainly occur in favor of important rain events (cumulative amounts on 2 to 8 days higher that 20 mm). The water-table discharges towards rivers. The monitoring of ground temperature indicates that the frozen ground (supposed permafrost) top is located at a maximum depth of 2.50 m for a groundwater thickness reaching up to 1.70 m, or 70 % of the active layer. Thermal data show ground temperatures between 0 and - 0.5°C, close to thaw temperature, which let suppose a permafrost degradation between 2.50 and 3.40 m deep is about to occur due to climate warming. Consequently, the suprapermafrost groundwater aquifer (active layer) is expected to thicken. Geochemical data show an increase of the basin surface water mineralization by groundwater contribution along the rivers, proof of a suprapermafrost groundwater impact on the solutes fluxes at the outlets. Elementary chemical analyses (n = 178) performed on the different components of the hydrological system show that basin waters have a sulfate-bicarbonate calcium to bicarbonate-sulfate calcium type linked to carbonates dissolution and sulfides (pyrite) oxydation in the recent moraines and to aluminosilicates weathering in older moraines. Strontium isotopic data (87Sr/86Sr; n = 8) are consistent with a contribution in dissolved calcium from aluminosilicates according to their radiogenic signature. The ¹³C contents of water DIC (n = 30) are consistent just as well with a system open on the soil CO₂ (at -20 ‰) and the atmospheric CO₂ (between -6.5 et -8 ‰) than with a system closed on the CO₂ where the δ ¹³C of marine carbonates (at 0 ‰) control the δ ¹³C signature by dissolution. Isotopic data of the water molecule (n = 592) are helpful to separate the signatures of the different water masses of the hydrosystem and to propose a 4 end-members mixing model explaining the river water signature: meltwaters, summer precipitations, subglacial water and suprapermafrost groundwater. The coupling between river water contents in ¹⁸O and SO²₄⁻ confirms this mixing model, even reinforcing it in terms of temporal variations. The unique measurement of ³H-³He tends to a short residence time while the first ¹⁴C activity data (n = 15) are low, giving a water mineralization by an old carbon.

The sinking of dense shelf waters down the continental slope (or “cascading”) contributes to oceanic water mass formation and carbon cycling. Cascading is therefore of significant importance for the global overturning circulation and thus climate. The occurrence of cascades is highly intermittent in space and time and observations of the process itself (rather than its outcomes) are scarce. Global climate models do not typically resolve cascading owing to numerical challenges concerning turbulence, mixing and faithful representation of bottom boundary layer dynamics. This work was motivated by the need to improve the representation of cascading in numerical ocean circulation models. Typical 3-D hydrostatic ocean circulation models are employed in a series of numerical experiments to investigate the process of dense water cascading in both idealised and realistic model setups. Cascading on steep bottom topography is modelled using POLCOMS, a 3-D ocean circulation model using a terrain-following s-coordinate system. The model setup is based on a laboratory experiment of a continuous dense water flow from a central source on a conical slope in a rotating tank. The descent of the dense flow as characterised by the length of the plume as a function of time is studied for a range of parameters, such as density difference, speed of rotation, flow rate and (in the model) diffusivity and viscosity. Very good agreement between the model and the laboratory results is shown in dimensional and non-dimensional variables. It is confirmed that a hydrostatic model is capable of reproducing the essential physics of cascading on a very steep slope if the model correctly resolves velocity veering in the bottom boundary layer. Experiments changing the height of the bottom Ekman layer (by changing viscosity) and modifying the plume from a 2-layer system to a stratified regime (by enhancing diapycnal diffusion) confirm previous theories, demonstrate their limitations and offer new insights into the dynamics of cascading outside of the controlled laboratory conditions. In further numerical experiments, the idealised geometry of the conical slope is retained but up-scaled to oceanic dimensions. The NEMO-SHELF model is used to study the fate of a dense water plume of similar properties to the overflow of brine-enriched shelf waters from the Storfjorden in Svalbard. The overflow plume, resulting from sea ice formation in the Storfjorden polynya, cascades into the ambient stratification resembling the predominant water masses of Fram Strait. At intermediate depths between 200-500m the plume encounters a layer of warm, saline AtlanticWater. In some years the plume ‘pierces’ the Atlantic Layer and sinks into the deep Fram Strait while in other years it remains ‘arrested’ at Atlantic Layer depths. It has been unclear what parameters control whether the plume pierces the Atlantic Layer or not. In a series of experiments we vary the salinity ‘S’ and the flow rate ‘Q’ of the simulated Storfjorden overflow to investigate both strong and weak cascading conditions. Results show that the cascading regime (piercing, arrested or ‘shaving’ - an intermediate case) can be predicted from the initial values of S and Q. In those model experiments where the initial density of the overflow water is considerably greater than of the deepest ambient water mass we find that a cascade with high initial S does not necessarily reach the bottom if Q is low. Conversely, cascades with an initial density just slightly higher than the deepest ambient layer may flow to the bottom if the flow rate Q is high. A functional relationship between S/Q and the final depth level of plume waters is explained by the flux of potential energy (arising from the introduction of dense water at shallow depth) which, in our idealised setting, represents the only energy source for downslope descent and mixing. Lastly, the influence of tides on the propagation of a dense water plume is investigated using a regional NEMO-SHELF model with realistic bathymetry, atmospheric forcing, open boundary conditions and tides. The model has 3 km horizontal resolution and 50 vertical levels in the sh-coordinate system which is specially designed to resolve bottom boundary layer processes. Tidal effects are isolated by comparing results from model runs with and without tides. A hotspot of tidally-induced horizontal diffusion leading to the lateral dispersion of the plume is identified at the southernmost headland of Spitsbergen which is in close proximity to the plume path. As a result the lighter fractions in the diluted upper layer of the plume are drawn into the shallow coastal current that carries Storfjorden water onto the Western Svalbard Shelf, while the dense bottom layer continues to sink down the slope. This bifurcation of the plume into a diluted shelf branch and a dense downslope branch is enhanced by tidally-induced shear dispersion at the headland. Tidal effects at the headland are shown to cause a net reduction in the downslope flux of Storfjorden water into deep Fram Strait. This finding contrasts previous results from observations of a dense plume on a different shelf without abrupt topography. The dispersive mechanism which is induced by the tides is identified as a mechanism by which tides may cause a relative reduction in downslope transport, thus adding to existing understanding of tidal effects on dense water overflows.

This research investigates different scenarios of deltaic deposition, both in shelfbreak and ramp settings. I address four ancient cases with particular characteristics: 1) A shelf-margin case from the Eocene Battfjellet Formation, West Spitsbergen, Norway, in which deltas were able to migrate to the shelf-edge during rising and sea-level highstand conditions despite the low-supply character of the system (low progradation/aggradation rates compared to analogous margins), with consequent sand starvation on the slope and deeper areas of the basin. The delta system was overall wave-dominated, with restricted tide-influence at the mouth of the distributaries and more accentuated tide-influence during the transgressive transit of the deltas; 2) A shelf-margin case from the Pliocene paleo-Orinoco Delta System, Mayaro Formation, SE-Trinidad, in which high rates of sediment supply from the paleo-Orinoco River and exceptionally high subsidence rates due to growth-faulting, produced a spectacular stacking of sandstones on the outer shelf and shelf-edge areas, but with apparently limited sand delivery into deeper waters. The delta system was overall storm-wave dominated, with fluvial-influence in the lower segment of the system and some tide-influence in association with the fluvial-influence; 3) A case from a shallow-water ramp, Campanian Rock Springs Formation (Western Interior Seaway), in which deltas accumulated along relatively straight, north-south oriented shorelines highly impacted by wave-storm processes. Tide-influence was limited to the mouth of the distributaries, and fluvial deposits mostly developed within the coastal-plain areas; and 4) A case from the same ramp setting as (3) but in an outer-ramp site, Campanian Haystack Mountains Formation, in which a lowering in sea-level translated the delta system tens of kilometers eastwards into the basin. As a consequence of a shallower and narrower seaway, southerly-oriented tidal currents were enhanced and subsequently skewed or re-aligned the delta system to the south. The key contributions of this research concern (1) the feasibility of shelf-margin accretion during rising and highstand of sea level, (2) the critical importance of shelf width and sediment supply (and not only sea-level behavior) to bring deltas to the shelfedge, and (3) the possible tendency for tides enhancement in the distal reaches of shallow seaway ramps, caused by narrowing of the seaway and fault-topography enhancement during falling sea level. / text