Frontal destabilization of Stonebreen, Edgeøya, Svalbard
In consideration of the strong atmospheric warming that has been observed since the 1990s in polar regions there is a need to quantify mass loss of Arctic ice caps and glaciers and their contribution to sea level rise. In polar regions a large part of glacier ablation is through calving of tidewater...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:tc54752 2023-05-15T15:08:43+02:00 Frontal destabilization of Stonebreen, Edgeøya, Svalbard Strozzi, Tazio Kääb, Andreas Schellenberger, Thomas 2018-09-27 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-553-2017 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/11/553/2017/ eng eng doi:10.5194/tc-11-553-2017 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/11/553/2017/ eISSN: 1994-0424 Text 2018 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-553-2017 2020-07-20T16:23:50Z In consideration of the strong atmospheric warming that has been observed since the 1990s in polar regions there is a need to quantify mass loss of Arctic ice caps and glaciers and their contribution to sea level rise. In polar regions a large part of glacier ablation is through calving of tidewater glaciers driven by ice velocities and their variations. The Svalbard region is characterized by glaciers with rapid dynamic fluctuations of different types, including irreversible adjustments of calving fronts to a changing mass balance and reversible, surge-type activities. For large areas, however, we do not have much past and current information on glacier dynamic fluctuations. Recently, through frequent monitoring based on repeat optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data, a number of zones of velocity increases have been observed at formerly slow-flowing calving fronts on Svalbard. Here we present the dynamic evolution of the southern lobe of Stonebreen on Edgeøya. We observe a slowly steady retreat of the glacier front from 1971 until 2011, followed by a strong increase in ice surface velocity along with a decrease of volume and frontal extension since 2012. The considerable losses in ice thickness could have made the tide-water calving glacier, which is grounded below sea level some 6 km inland from the 2014 front, more sensitive to surface meltwater reaching its bed and/or warm ocean water increasing frontal ablation with subsequent strong multi-annual ice-flow acceleration. Text Arctic Edgeøya glacier Svalbard Tidewater Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Arctic Edgeøya ENVELOPE(22.500,22.500,77.750,77.750) Stonebreen ENVELOPE(23.960,23.960,77.724,77.724) Svalbard The Cryosphere 11 1 553 566 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
op_collection_id |
ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
In consideration of the strong atmospheric warming that has been observed since the 1990s in polar regions there is a need to quantify mass loss of Arctic ice caps and glaciers and their contribution to sea level rise. In polar regions a large part of glacier ablation is through calving of tidewater glaciers driven by ice velocities and their variations. The Svalbard region is characterized by glaciers with rapid dynamic fluctuations of different types, including irreversible adjustments of calving fronts to a changing mass balance and reversible, surge-type activities. For large areas, however, we do not have much past and current information on glacier dynamic fluctuations. Recently, through frequent monitoring based on repeat optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data, a number of zones of velocity increases have been observed at formerly slow-flowing calving fronts on Svalbard. Here we present the dynamic evolution of the southern lobe of Stonebreen on Edgeøya. We observe a slowly steady retreat of the glacier front from 1971 until 2011, followed by a strong increase in ice surface velocity along with a decrease of volume and frontal extension since 2012. The considerable losses in ice thickness could have made the tide-water calving glacier, which is grounded below sea level some 6 km inland from the 2014 front, more sensitive to surface meltwater reaching its bed and/or warm ocean water increasing frontal ablation with subsequent strong multi-annual ice-flow acceleration. |
format |
Text |
author |
Strozzi, Tazio Kääb, Andreas Schellenberger, Thomas |
spellingShingle |
Strozzi, Tazio Kääb, Andreas Schellenberger, Thomas Frontal destabilization of Stonebreen, Edgeøya, Svalbard |
author_facet |
Strozzi, Tazio Kääb, Andreas Schellenberger, Thomas |
author_sort |
Strozzi, Tazio |
title |
Frontal destabilization of Stonebreen, Edgeøya, Svalbard |
title_short |
Frontal destabilization of Stonebreen, Edgeøya, Svalbard |
title_full |
Frontal destabilization of Stonebreen, Edgeøya, Svalbard |
title_fullStr |
Frontal destabilization of Stonebreen, Edgeøya, Svalbard |
title_full_unstemmed |
Frontal destabilization of Stonebreen, Edgeøya, Svalbard |
title_sort |
frontal destabilization of stonebreen, edgeøya, svalbard |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-553-2017 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/11/553/2017/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(22.500,22.500,77.750,77.750) ENVELOPE(23.960,23.960,77.724,77.724) |
geographic |
Arctic Edgeøya Stonebreen Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Edgeøya Stonebreen Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Edgeøya glacier Svalbard Tidewater |
genre_facet |
Arctic Edgeøya glacier Svalbard Tidewater |
op_source |
eISSN: 1994-0424 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-11-553-2017 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/11/553/2017/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-553-2017 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
553 |
op_container_end_page |
566 |
_version_ |
1766340032389447680 |