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dc.contributor.authorBevan, Suzanne
dc.contributor.authorLuckman, Adrian
dc.contributor.authorBenn, Douglas I.
dc.contributor.authorCowton, Tom
dc.contributor.authorTodd, Joe
dc.date.accessioned2019-09-19T08:30:07Z
dc.date.available2019-09-19T08:30:07Z
dc.date.issued2019-09-05
dc.identifier.citationBevan , S , Luckman , A , Benn , D I , Cowton , T & Todd , J 2019 , ' Impact of warming shelf waters on ice mélange and terminus retreat at a large SE Greenland glacier ' , The Cryosphere , vol. 13 , pp. 2303-2315 . https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2303-2019en
dc.identifier.issn1994-0416
dc.identifier.otherPURE: 260404300
dc.identifier.otherPURE UUID: 22869638-0e65-4794-9204-c7ea3f8c0a0a
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0003-1668-7372/work/61979024
dc.identifier.otherScopus: 85072014135
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0002-3604-0886/work/64697396
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0003-3183-043X/work/65014586
dc.identifier.otherWOS: 000484495000002
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/18508
dc.descriptionThe research under project CALISMO (Calving Laws for Ice Sheet Models) was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grants NE/P011365/1. TanDEM-X data used for generating the DEMs and for ice-front positions and glacier velocities 5 were supplied by DLR, as part of NERC project NE/I0071481/1.en
dc.description.abstractBy the end of 2018 Kangerlussuaq Glacier in southeast Greenland had retreated further inland than at any time in the past 80 years and its terminus was approaching a region of retrograde bed slope from where further rapid retreat would have been inevitable. Here we show that the retreat occurred because the glacier failed to advance during the winters of 2016/17 and 2017/18 owing to a weakened proglacial mélange. This mixture of sea ice and icebergs is normally rigid enough to inhibit calving in winter, but for 2 consecutive years it repeatedly collapsed, allowing Kangerlussuaq Glacier to continue to calve all year round. The mélange break-ups followed the establishment of anomalously warm surface water on the continental shelf during 2016, which likely penetrated the fjord. As calving continued uninterrupted from summer 2016 to the end of 2018 the glacier accelerated by 35 % and thinned by 35 m. These observations demonstrate the importance of near-surface ocean temperatures in tidewater glacier stability and show that it is not only deep-ocean warming that can lead to glacier retreat. During winter 2019 a persistent mélange reformed and the glacier readvanced by 3.5 km.
dc.format.extent13
dc.language.isoeng
dc.relation.ispartofThe Cryosphereen
dc.rightsCopyright © Author(s) 2019. Open Access article. Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.en
dc.subjectG Geography (General)en
dc.subjectDASen
dc.subject.lccG1en
dc.titleImpact of warming shelf waters on ice mélange and terminus retreat at a large SE Greenland glacieren
dc.typeJournal articleen
dc.contributor.sponsorNERCen
dc.description.versionPublisher PDFen
dc.contributor.institutionUniversity of St Andrews. Bell-Edwards Geographic Data Instituteen
dc.contributor.institutionUniversity of St Andrews. School of Geography & Sustainable Developmenten
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2303-2019
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.date.embargoedUntil2019-09-05
dc.identifier.grantnumberNE-P011365/1en


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