The discharge in Tierney Creek from proglacial Chelnok Lake was
recorded during the summer of 1987–1988. In addition, air
temperature, water temperature, and radiation were recorded.
Multiple linear regressions revealed that discharge could be
predicted from recorded radiation and air temperature in late
summer. In early summer, other factors such as wind must also be
taken into account. Long-term discharge fluctuations displayed
response times that decreased during the runoff season due to the
opening of the meltwater channels on the ice-margin. During parts of
the runoff season, flow variations were modulated by nocturnal
freezing in the creek, a phenomenon still more pronounced in Onyx
River in the Dry Valleys of Victoria Land. Hydrologically, Tierney
Creek resembled Onyx River, but, in the Onyx, the flow pattern was
more exclusively determined by low air temperatures than it was in
Tierney 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 between
flow peak and insolation peak.