Iceberg melting substantially modifies oceanic heat flux towards a major Greenlandic tidewater glacier

Abstract

Fjord dynamics influence oceanic heat flux to the Greenland ice sheet. Submarine iceberg melting releases large volumes of freshwater within Greenland’s fjords, yet its impact on fjord dynamics remains unclear. We modify an ocean model to simulate submarine iceberg melting in Sermilik Fjord, east Greenland. Here we find that submarine iceberg melting cools and freshens the fjord by up to ~5 °C and 0.7 psu in the upper 100-200 m. The release of freshwater from icebergs drives an overturning circulation, resulting in a ~10% increase in net up-fjord heat flux. In addition, we find that submarine iceberg melting accounts for over 95% of heat used for ice melt in Sermilik Fjord. Our results highlight the substantial impact that icebergs have on the dynamics of a major Greenlandic fjord, demonstrating the importance of including related processes in studies that seek to quantify interactions between the ice sheet and the ocean.

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Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Davison, B.J. Cowton, T.R. Cottier, F.R. Sole, A.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5290-8967
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Keywords:	Cryospheric science; Physical oceanography
Dates:	Accepted: 23 October 2020 Published (online): 25 November 2020 Published: 25 November 2020
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Geography (Sheffield)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Sheffield
Date Deposited:	27 Nov 2020 14:25
Last Modified:	27 Nov 2020 14:25
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41467-020-19805-7
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:168500

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Iceberg melting substantially modifies oceanic heat flux towards a major Greenlandic tidewater glacier

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