IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v9y2018i1d10.1038_s41467-018-05180-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Large ice loss variability at Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier, Northeast-Greenland

Author

Listed:
  • Christoph Mayer

    (Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities)

  • Janin Schaffer

    (Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research)

  • Tore Hattermann

    (Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
    Akvaplan-niva AS, Fram Centre)

  • Dana Floricioiu

    (Remote Sensing Technology Institute, German Aerospace Centre (DLR))

  • Lukas Krieger

    (Remote Sensing Technology Institute, German Aerospace Centre (DLR))

  • Paul A. Dodd

    (Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre)

  • Torsten Kanzow

    (Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research)

  • Carlo Licciulli

    (Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities)

  • Clemens Schannwell

    (University of Tübingen, Geologie & Geodynamik)

Abstract

Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden is a major outlet glacier in Northeast-Greenland. Although earlier studies showed that the floating part near the grounding line thinned by 30% between 1999 and 2014, the temporal ice loss evolution, its relation to external forcing and the implications for the grounded ice sheet remain largely unclear. By combining observations of surface features, ice thickness and bedrock data, we find that the ice shelf mass balance has been out of equilibrium since 2001, with large variations of the thinning rates on annual/multiannual time scales. Changes in ice flux and surface ablation are too small to produce this variability. An increased ocean heat flux is the most plausible cause of the observed thinning. For sustained environmental conditions, the ice shelf will lose large parts of its area within a few decades and ice modeling shows a significant, but locally restricted thinning upstream of the grounding line in response.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoph Mayer & Janin Schaffer & Tore Hattermann & Dana Floricioiu & Lukas Krieger & Paul A. Dodd & Torsten Kanzow & Carlo Licciulli & Clemens Schannwell, 2018. "Large ice loss variability at Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier, Northeast-Greenland," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-05180-x
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05180-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05180-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-018-05180-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Henning Åkesson & Mathieu Morlighem & Johan Nilsson & Christian Stranne & Martin Jakobsson, 2022. "Petermann ice shelf may not recover after a future breakup," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-05180-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.