Wallis, B.J., Hogg, A.E., Meredith, M.P. et al. (6 more authors) (2023) Ocean warming drives rapid dynamic activation of marine-terminating glacier on the west Antarctic Peninsula. Nature Communications, 14. 7535. ISSN 2041-1723
Abstract
Ice dynamic change is the primary cause of mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, thus it is important to understand the processes driving ice-ocean interactions and the timescale on which major change can occur. Here we use satellite observations to measure a rapid increase in speed and collapse of the ice shelf fronting Cadman Glacier in the absence of surface meltwater ponding. Between November 2018 and December 2019 ice speed increased by 94 ± 4% (1.47 ± 0.6 km/yr), ice discharge increased by 0.52 ± 0.21 Gt/yr, and the calving front retreated by 8 km with dynamic thinning on grounded ice of 20.1 ± 2.6 m/yr. This change was concurrent with a positive temperature anomaly in the upper ocean, where a 400 m deep channel allowed warm water to reach Cadman Glacier driving the dynamic activation, while neighbouring Funk and Lever Glaciers were protected by bathymetric sills across their fjords. Our results show that forcing by warm ocean water can cause the rapid onset of dynamic imbalance and increased ice discharge from glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula, highlighting the region’s sensitivity to future climate variability.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2023. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/T012757/1 NERC DTP NE/S007458/1 EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY Country code to be checked 4000132186/20/I-EF EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY Country code to be checked 4000135062/21/I-NB |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 30 Oct 2023 16:08 |
Last Modified: | 29 Nov 2023 12:30 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41467-023-42970-4 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:204684 |