Interannual changes of the floating ice shelf of Petermann Gletscher, North Greenland, from 2000 to 2012

Münchow, Andreas; Padman, Laurie; Fricker, H. A.

doi:10.3189/2014jog13j135

Cited by 89 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…The wider significance of these events is difficult to assess, and Falkner et al [58] noted that a massive ice-retreat event of a similar magnitude to that on Petermann Glacier in 2010 might have occurred during a gap in the observational record. However, there is no direct evidence that this was the case, and following another highmagnitude calving event in 2012, the glacier was about 25 km more retreated than any observed position since records began in 1876 [37].…”

Section: Processes Of Frontal Ablationmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…At Petermann Glacier, North Greenland, major calving events occurred in 2010 and 2012, releasing tabular icebergs~250 and 130 km 2 in area, respectively. In the years preceding the first event, the floating ice tongue thinned by 5 m/year, largely because of basal melting [37]. This thinning appears to have played a key role in structural weakening, possibly exacerbated by the presence of channels incised into the base of the ice tongue.…”

Section: Processes Of Frontal Ablationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Submarine melting is a direct source of mass loss from tidewater glaciers, but it may also serve to accelerate calving by undercutting grounded glacier termini [2,3,6] or weakening floating ice tongues [37]. Establishing the impact and significance of submarine melting at Greenland's tidewater glaciers has proven challenging, however, due to the extreme difficulty of data collection.…”

Section: Processes Of Frontal Ablationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Glacier Calving in Greenland

Benn

Cowton

Todd

et al. 2017

Curr Clim Change Rep

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In combination, the breakaway of icebergs (calving) and submarine melting at marine-terminating glaciers account for between one third and one half of the mass annually discharged from the Greenland Ice Sheet into the ocean. These ice losses are increasing due to glacier acceleration and retreat, largely in response to increased heat flux from the oceans. Behaviour of Greenland's marine-terminating ('tidewater') glaciers is strongly influenced by fjord bathymetry, particularly the presence of 'pinning points' (narrow or shallow parts of fjords that encourage stability) and overdeepened basins (that encourage rapid retreat). Despite the importance of calving and submarine melting and significant advances in monitoring and understanding key processes, it is not yet possible to predict the tidewater glacier response to climatic and oceanic forcing with any confidence. The simple calving laws required for ice-sheet models do not adequately represent the complexity of calving processes. New detailed process models, however, are increasing our understanding of the key processes and are guiding the design of improved calving laws. There is thus some prospect of reaching the elusive goal of accurately predicting future tidewater glacier behaviour and associated rates of sea-level rise.

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Section: Processes Of Frontal Ablationmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Processes Of Frontal Ablationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Processes Of Frontal Ablationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Glacier Calving in Greenland

Benn

Cowton

Todd

et al. 2017

Curr Clim Change Rep

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“…With a drainage basin size of 30,000 km 2 , Rink Isbrae drains ~3.5% of the Greenland Ice Sheet (Rignot and Kanagaratnam, 2006) through a 4.5-km-wide terminus. The front position has remained quasi-stable since 2000 (Howat et al, 2010;Box and Decker, 2011;Moon et al, 2014) and no speedup or surface elevation changes were recorded between 2000and 2009(McFadden et al, 2011. Surface ice motion averaged 4.5 km a -1 for the 2009-2013 period, with intra-annual motion variations of 10% correlated with seasonal terminus position changes, where summertime terminus retreat coincides with speedup, and winter advance with slowdown (Moon et al, 2014).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 97%

Calving Behavior at Rink Isbræ, West Greenland, from Time-Lapse Photos

Medrzycka

Benn

Box

et al. 2016

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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“…Although marine-terminating glaciers cover only a small fraction of the entire GrIS, modifications at the ice-ocean boundaries due to oceanic changes may considerably affect the inland ice geometry. The effects induced by outlet-glacier acceleration are transferred onshore by ice-flow dynamics, causing adjustments to the entire inland ice-mass configuration (Nick et al, 2009;Fürst et al, 2013;Golledge et al, 2012). For this reason, a full understanding of the interaction between ice and ocean is crucial to assess the response of the GrIS to past and future climate changes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sensitivity of the Greenland Ice Sheet to glacial–interglacial oceanic forcing

et al. 2018

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Abstract.Observations suggest that during the last decades the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has experienced a gradually accelerating mass loss, in part due to the observed speedup of several of Greenland's marine-terminating glaciers. Recent studies directly attribute this to warming North Atlantic temperatures, which have triggered melting of the outlet glaciers of the GrIS, grounding-line retreat and enhanced ice discharge into the ocean, contributing to an acceleration of sea-level rise. Reconstructions suggest that the influence of the ocean has been of primary importance in the past as well. This was the case not only in interglacial periods, when warmer climates led to a rapid retreat of the GrIS to land above sea level, but also in glacial periods, when the GrIS expanded as far as the continental shelf break and was thus more directly exposed to oceanic changes. However, the GrIS response to palaeo-oceanic variations has yet to be investigated in detail from a mechanistic modelling perspective. In this work, the evolution of the GrIS over the past two glacial cycles is studied using a three-dimensional hybrid ice-sheetshelf model. We assess the effect of the variation of oceanic temperatures on the GrIS evolution on glacial-interglacial timescales through changes in submarine melting. The results show a very high sensitivity of the GrIS to changing oceanic conditions. Oceanic forcing is found to be a primary driver of GrIS expansion in glacial times and of retreat in interglacial periods. If switched off, palaeo-atmospheric variations alone are not able to yield a reliable glacial configuration of the GrIS. This work therefore suggests that considering the ocean as an active forcing should become standard practice in palaeo-ice-sheet modelling.

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Interannual changes of the floating ice shelf of Petermann Gletscher, North Greenland, from 2000 to 2012

Abstract: , which represents a non-steady mass loss of $4.1 Gt a -1 . We suggest that thinning in the basal channels structurally weakened the ice shelf and may have played a role in the recent calving events.

Cited by 89 publications

References 61 publications

Glacier Calving in Greenland

Glacier Calving in Greenland

Calving Behavior at Rink Isbræ, West Greenland, from Time-Lapse Photos

The sensitivity of the Greenland Ice Sheet to glacial–interglacial oceanic forcing

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