posted on 2019-02-19, 09:29authored byJonathan L. Carrivick, Clare M. Boston, Owen King, William H. James, Duncan J. Quincey, Mark W. Smith, Michael Grimes, Jeffrey EvansJeffrey Evans
Mountain glaciers at the periphery of the Greenland ice sheet are a crucial freshwater and sediment source to the North Atlantic and strongly impact Arctic terrestrial, fjord, and coastal biogeochemical cycles. In this study we mapped the extent of 1,848 mountain glaciers in NE Greenland at the Little Ice Age. We determined area and volume changes for the time periods Little Ice Age to 1980s and 1980s to 2014 and equilibrium line altitudes. There was at least 172.76 ± 34.55‐km3 volume lost between 1910 and 1980s, that is, a rate of 2.61 ± 0.52 km3/year. Between 1980s and 2014 the volume lost was 90.55 ± 18.11 km3, that is, a rate of 3.22 ± 0.64 km3/year, implying an increase of ~23% in the rate of ice volume loss. Overall, at least ~7% of mass loss from Greenland mountain glaciers and ice caps has come from the NE sector.
Funding
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 project INTERACT, under grant agreement 730938, for field logistics via Zackenberg in August 2017. O. K., W. H. M. J. and M. G. received NERC PhD studentships; NE/K500847/1, NE/L002574/1, and NE/L002574/1, respectively.
History
School
Social Sciences
Department
Geography and Environment
Published in
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume
46
Issue
3
Pages
1476-1484
Citation
CARRIVICK, J.L. ... et al, 2019. Accelerated volume loss in glacier ablation zones of NE Greenland, Little Ice Age to present. Geophysical Research Letters, 46 (3), pp.1476-1484.