Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2009
The discharge in Tierney Creek from proglacial Chelnok Lake wasrecorded during the summer of 1987–1988. In addition, airtemperature, water temperature, and radiation were recorded.Multiple linear regressions revealed that discharge could bepredicted from recorded radiation and air temperature in latesummer. In early summer, other factors such as wind must also betaken into account. Long-term discharge fluctuations displayedresponse times that decreased during the runoff season due to theopening of the meltwater channels on the ice-margin. During parts ofthe runoff season, flow variations were modulated by nocturnalfreezing in the creek, a phenomenon still more pronounced in OnyxRiver in the Dry Valleys of Victoria Land. Hydrologically, TierneyCreek resembled Onyx River, but, in the Onyx, the flow pattern wasmore exclusively determined by low air temperatures than it was inTierney Creek. In the Dry Valleys, streams whose lengths, gradients,and discharges are of the same magnitude as those of Tierney Creek,also display similar recession coefficients and time lags betweenflow peak and insolation peak.