Steep Glacier Bed Knickpoints Mitigate Inland Thinning in Greenland
Greenland's outlet glaciers have been a leading source of mass loss and accompanying sea-level rise from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) over the last 25 years. The dynamic component of outlet glacier mass loss depends on both the ice flux through the terminus and the inland extent of glacier th...
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2021
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt5j26h12t 2023-09-05T13:19:36+02:00 Steep Glacier Bed Knickpoints Mitigate Inland Thinning in Greenland Felikson, Denis Catania, Ginny Bartholomaus, Timothy C Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice PY e2020gl090112 2021-01-28 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5j26h12t unknown eScholarship, University of California qt5j26h12t https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5j26h12t public Geophysical Research Letters, vol 48, iss 2 Climate Action Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences article 2021 ftcdlib 2023-08-21T18:05:05Z Greenland's outlet glaciers have been a leading source of mass loss and accompanying sea-level rise from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) over the last 25 years. The dynamic component of outlet glacier mass loss depends on both the ice flux through the terminus and the inland extent of glacier thinning, initiated at the ice-ocean interface. Here, we find limits to the inland spread of thinning that initiates at glacier termini for 141 ocean-terminating outlet glaciers around the GrIS. Inland diffusion of thinning is limited by steep reaches of bed topography that we call "knickpoints." We show that knickpoints exist beneath the majority of outlet glaciers but they are less steep in regions of gentle bed topography, giving glaciers in gentle bed topography the potential to contribute to ongoing and future mass loss from the GrIS by allowing the diffusion of thinning far into the ice sheet interior. Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland Ice Sheet University of California: eScholarship Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Climate Action Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Climate Action Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Felikson, Denis Catania, Ginny Bartholomaus, Timothy C Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice PY Steep Glacier Bed Knickpoints Mitigate Inland Thinning in Greenland |
topic_facet |
Climate Action Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences |
description |
Greenland's outlet glaciers have been a leading source of mass loss and accompanying sea-level rise from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) over the last 25 years. The dynamic component of outlet glacier mass loss depends on both the ice flux through the terminus and the inland extent of glacier thinning, initiated at the ice-ocean interface. Here, we find limits to the inland spread of thinning that initiates at glacier termini for 141 ocean-terminating outlet glaciers around the GrIS. Inland diffusion of thinning is limited by steep reaches of bed topography that we call "knickpoints." We show that knickpoints exist beneath the majority of outlet glaciers but they are less steep in regions of gentle bed topography, giving glaciers in gentle bed topography the potential to contribute to ongoing and future mass loss from the GrIS by allowing the diffusion of thinning far into the ice sheet interior. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Felikson, Denis Catania, Ginny Bartholomaus, Timothy C Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice PY |
author_facet |
Felikson, Denis Catania, Ginny Bartholomaus, Timothy C Morlighem, Mathieu Noël, Brice PY |
author_sort |
Felikson, Denis |
title |
Steep Glacier Bed Knickpoints Mitigate Inland Thinning in Greenland |
title_short |
Steep Glacier Bed Knickpoints Mitigate Inland Thinning in Greenland |
title_full |
Steep Glacier Bed Knickpoints Mitigate Inland Thinning in Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Steep Glacier Bed Knickpoints Mitigate Inland Thinning in Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Steep Glacier Bed Knickpoints Mitigate Inland Thinning in Greenland |
title_sort |
steep glacier bed knickpoints mitigate inland thinning in greenland |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5j26h12t |
op_coverage |
e2020gl090112 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Geophysical Research Letters, vol 48, iss 2 |
op_relation |
qt5j26h12t https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5j26h12t |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1776200421765808128 |