Contemporary changes in the area of glaciers in the western part of the Nordenskjold Land (Svalbard)

Abstract

Climate warming in Svalbard, starting in the 1920s, caused a signifcant reduction in the mountain glaciation of the Nordenskjold Land. Te most extensive changes took place in the Western part of this territory due to the influence of the warm Spitsbergen current creating here the high temperature background. In addition, due to elevation of the level of the climatic snow line, many glaciers have actually lost the area of accumulation. From 1936 to 2017, the area of glaciers in the Western part of this region decreased by 169.5 km2 or 49.5%. Large valley glaciers and numerous small glaciers have lost the greatest area. Te relative losses of the area of glaciers were revealed to be proportional to sizes of them. In average over the past 80 years, glaciers with areas smaller 0.5 km² reduced by 76%, while big glaciers with areas larger 5 km2 – by only 34%. At present, there are 152 glaciers with a total area of 172.73±9.31 km2 in the Western territory of the Land of Nordenskjold (West of the Bolterdalen valley). According to the aerial photography of 2008–2009, the total area of glaciation of the Land of Nordenskjold covers 428 km2. High present-day rates of the retreating of local glaciers are apparently caused by extreme thinning of glacial tongues. At the same time, shrinking of glaciers located in the West of the Peninsula turned out to be more intensive than that of glaciers in its center. Although the Eastern territories receive less precipitation than glaciers near the coast of the Greenland Sea, the Eastern glaciers were found to be more resistant to reduction due to higher locations of them.

Pingo development in Grøndalen, West Spitsbergen

“…This is because glacier size decrease and surface 30 lowering induce shrinking accumulation area and further decreasing warm-based area terminating the recharge of springs. In this context, in the study of Chernov and Muraviev (2018) it was shown that the loss in glacier area in Nordenskiöld Land (West Spitsbergen) between 1936 and 2017 reached 49.5 %. Water discharge by the spring in Grøndalen does not necessarily means that surrounding glaciers are warm-based at current time.…”

Mass Balance of Austre Grønfjordbreen, Svalbard, 2006–2020, Estimated by Glaciological, Geodetic and Modeling Aproaches

“…The glacier is formed by two tributaries merging in the middle part at the level of 300-360 m a.s.l. Chernov et al [22] reported that from 1936 to 2017, the glacier lost 44% of its area, from 2003 to 2017 it lost 23%, and 27% was lost from 1990 to 2017. The glacier retreated by 3 km from 1936 to 2017 ( Figure 1).…”

“…According to multi-temporal digital inventory of Svalbard glaciers by Nuth [6] and the original glacier inventory of Svalbard by Hagen [43], which followed the identification and parameter definitions outlined in the World Glacier Inventory [44], the largest relative area changes between the periods of these two inventories occurred in Nordenskiöld Land area. The results from [22] showed that the reduction of valley glaciers of Nordenskiöld Land is inversely proportional to their size. The elevation range is an important factor since it is directly related to the ablation.…”

Geocryological and Hydrogeological Conditions of the Western Part of Nordenskiold Land (Spitsbergen Archipelago)

“…The degradation of glaciers is widespread in the west of the Nordenskiold Land during the current 100-year period as a result of climate warming (Mavlyudov et al, 2012). From 1936 to 2017, the area of glaciers decreased on average by 49.5%, and their outer edge retreated by several kilometers (Chernov and Murav'ev, 2018). Intraglacial channels are described in a number of glaciers: water through them is drained to bed rocks (Mavlyudov, 2007).…”