Potential Environmental Effects of Expanding Lake Jökulsárlón in Response to Melting of Breiðamerkurjökull, Iceland

• Published in: Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization
• Main Authors: Canas, Daniel, Chan, Winnie May, Chiu, Austen, Jung-Ritchie, Logan, Leung, Matthew, Pillay, Logesh, Waltham, Brenda
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 2015
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Breiðamerkurjökull; Jökulsárlón; Vatnajökull; glacier; Ice cap; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cart.50.3.3197g; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/cart.50.3.3197G

Glacial retreat has been well documented in several studies on the Vatnajökull ice cap. Breiðamerkurjökull, an outlet glacier from Vatnajökull, has been actively retreating since the end of the Little Ice Age in the mid-nineteenth century. There is a strong correlation between the increasing rate of glacial melt resulting from rising global temperatures and the expansion of proglacial lakes. Jökulsárlón, a proglacial lake associated with Breiðamerkurjökull, has grown significantly, from 14.6 km 2 to 25.4 km 2 , between 1999 and 2014, as illustrated in a series of Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 images. Climate models predict that global temperatures will continue rising, which will impact the rate of glacial melt and subsequent expansion of proglacial lakes. These trends, as seen around the Breiðamerkurjökull-Jökulsárlón area, may result in serious environmental complications for the Icelandic population in the future. For that reason, it is important to monitor this phenomenon and take precautions where necessary. Jökulsárlón will also serve as a modern analogue for future studies on understanding the relationship between outlet glaciers and proglacial lakes' responses to climatic change.