Ongoing grounding line retreat and fracturing initiated at the Petermann Glacier ice shelf, Greenland, after 2016
<p>The Petermann ice shelf is one of the largest in Greenland, buttressing 4 % of the total ice sheet discharge, and is considered dynamically stable. In this study, we use differential synthetic aperture radar interferometry to reconstruct the grounding line migration between 1992 and 2021. O...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2022-08-01
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| Series: | The Cryosphere |
| Online Access: | https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/3021/2022/tc-16-3021-2022.pdf |
| _version_ | 1811343691996987392 |
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| author | R. Millan R. Millan R. Millan J. Mouginot J. Mouginot A. Derkacheva E. Rignot E. Rignot P. Milillo E. Ciraci L. Dini A. Bjørk |
| author_facet | R. Millan R. Millan R. Millan J. Mouginot J. Mouginot A. Derkacheva E. Rignot E. Rignot P. Milillo E. Ciraci L. Dini A. Bjørk |
| author_sort | R. Millan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>The Petermann ice shelf is one of the largest in Greenland,
buttressing 4 % of the total ice sheet discharge, and is considered
dynamically stable. In this study, we use differential synthetic aperture
radar interferometry to reconstruct the grounding line migration between
1992 and 2021. Over the last 30 years, we find that the grounding line
of Petermann retreated 4 km in the western and eastern sectors and 7 km in
the central part. The majority of the retreat in the central sector took
place between 2017 and 2021, where the glacier receded more than 5 km along
a retrograde bed grounded 500 m below sea level. While the central sector
stabilized on a sill, the eastern flank is sitting on top of a down-sloping
bed, which might enhance the glacier retreat in the coming years. This
grounding line retreat followed a speedup of the glacier by 15 % in the
period 2015–2018. Along with the glacier acceleration, two large fractures
formed along flow in 2015, splitting the ice shelf in three sections, with
a partially decoupled flow regime. While these series of events followed the
warming of the ocean waters by 0.3 <span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span>C in Nares Strait, the use of a
simple grounding line model suggests that enhanced submarine melting may
have been responsible for the recent grounding line migration of Petermann
Glacier.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T19:34:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-59f13791d3f64f54ab537ff0d7094ee9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1994-0416 1994-0424 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T19:34:28Z |
| publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Cryosphere |
| spelling | doaj.art-59f13791d3f64f54ab537ff0d7094ee92022-12-22T02:33:05ZengCopernicus PublicationsThe Cryosphere1994-04161994-04242022-08-01163021303110.5194/tc-16-3021-2022Ongoing grounding line retreat and fracturing initiated at the Petermann Glacier ice shelf, Greenland, after 2016R. Millan0R. Millan1R. Millan2J. Mouginot3J. Mouginot4A. Derkacheva5E. Rignot6E. Rignot7P. Milillo8E. Ciraci9L. Dini10A. Bjørk11Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources Management, University of Copenhagen, 1350, Copenhagen, DenmarkUniversité Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, INP, 38400, Grenoble, Isère, FranceInvited contribution by Romain Millan, recipient of the EGU Cryospheric Sciences Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award 2022.Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, INP, 38400, Grenoble, Isère, FranceDepartment of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USAUniversité Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, INP, 38400, Grenoble, Isère, FranceDepartment of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USADepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USAItalian Space Agency, Matera, ItalyDepartment of Geosciences and Natural Resources Management, University of Copenhagen, 1350, Copenhagen, Denmark<p>The Petermann ice shelf is one of the largest in Greenland, buttressing 4 % of the total ice sheet discharge, and is considered dynamically stable. In this study, we use differential synthetic aperture radar interferometry to reconstruct the grounding line migration between 1992 and 2021. Over the last 30 years, we find that the grounding line of Petermann retreated 4 km in the western and eastern sectors and 7 km in the central part. The majority of the retreat in the central sector took place between 2017 and 2021, where the glacier receded more than 5 km along a retrograde bed grounded 500 m below sea level. While the central sector stabilized on a sill, the eastern flank is sitting on top of a down-sloping bed, which might enhance the glacier retreat in the coming years. This grounding line retreat followed a speedup of the glacier by 15 % in the period 2015–2018. Along with the glacier acceleration, two large fractures formed along flow in 2015, splitting the ice shelf in three sections, with a partially decoupled flow regime. While these series of events followed the warming of the ocean waters by 0.3 <span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span>C in Nares Strait, the use of a simple grounding line model suggests that enhanced submarine melting may have been responsible for the recent grounding line migration of Petermann Glacier.</p>https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/3021/2022/tc-16-3021-2022.pdf |
| spellingShingle | R. Millan R. Millan R. Millan J. Mouginot J. Mouginot A. Derkacheva E. Rignot E. Rignot P. Milillo E. Ciraci L. Dini A. Bjørk Ongoing grounding line retreat and fracturing initiated at the Petermann Glacier ice shelf, Greenland, after 2016 The Cryosphere |
| title | Ongoing grounding line retreat and fracturing initiated at the Petermann Glacier ice shelf, Greenland, after 2016 |
| title_full | Ongoing grounding line retreat and fracturing initiated at the Petermann Glacier ice shelf, Greenland, after 2016 |
| title_fullStr | Ongoing grounding line retreat and fracturing initiated at the Petermann Glacier ice shelf, Greenland, after 2016 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ongoing grounding line retreat and fracturing initiated at the Petermann Glacier ice shelf, Greenland, after 2016 |
| title_short | Ongoing grounding line retreat and fracturing initiated at the Petermann Glacier ice shelf, Greenland, after 2016 |
| title_sort | ongoing grounding line retreat and fracturing initiated at the petermann glacier ice shelf greenland after 2016 |
| url | https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/3021/2022/tc-16-3021-2022.pdf |
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