Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula
Over the last half century, the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) has been among the most rapidly warming regions on Earth. This has led to increased summer snowmelt, loss of ice shelves, and retreat of 87% of marine and tidewater glacier fronts. Tidewater-glacier flow is sensitive to changes in basal water...
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American Geophysical Union
2007
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Online Access: | http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/11891/ http://www.agu.org/journals/jf/jf0702/2006JF000597/2006JF000597.pdf |
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:11891 2023-05-15T13:45:10+02:00 Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula Pritchard, Hamish D. Vaughan, David G. 2007 http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/11891/ http://www.agu.org/journals/jf/jf0702/2006JF000597/2006JF000597.pdf unknown American Geophysical Union Pritchard, Hamish D. orcid:0000-0003-2936-1734 Vaughan, David G. orcid:0000-0002-9065-0570 . 2007 Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula. Journal of Geophysical Research, 112 (F3), F03S29. 10, pp. https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JF000597 <https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JF000597> Marine Sciences Meteorology and Climatology Glaciology Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2007 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JF000597 2023-02-04T19:27:39Z Over the last half century, the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) has been among the most rapidly warming regions on Earth. This has led to increased summer snowmelt, loss of ice shelves, and retreat of 87% of marine and tidewater glacier fronts. Tidewater-glacier flow is sensitive to changes in basal water supply and to thinning of the terminus, and faster flow leads directly to sea level rise. The flow rates of most AP tidewater glaciers have never been measured, however, and hence their dynamic response to the recent changes is unknown. We present repeated flow rate measurements from over 300 glaciers on the AP west coast through nine summers from 1992 to 2005. We show that the flow rate increased by similar to 12% on average and that this trend is greater than the seasonal variability in flow rate. We attribute this widespread acceleration trend not to meltwater-enhanced lubrication or increased snowfall but to a dynamic response to frontal thinning. We estimate that as a result, the annual sea level contribution from this region has increased by 0.047 +/- 0.011 mm between 1993 and 2003. This contribution, together with previous studies that assessed increased runoff from the area and acceleration of glaciers resulting from the removal of ice shelves, implies a combined AP contribution of 0.16 +/- 0.06 mm yr(-1). This is comparable to the contribution from Alaskan glaciers, and combined with estimated mass loss from West Antarctica, is probably large enough to outweigh mass gains in East Antarctica and to make the total Antarctic sea level contribution positive. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Shelves Tidewater West Antarctica Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Antarctic The Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula East Antarctica West Antarctica Journal of Geophysical Research 112 F3 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Marine Sciences Meteorology and Climatology Glaciology |
spellingShingle |
Marine Sciences Meteorology and Climatology Glaciology Pritchard, Hamish D. Vaughan, David G. Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula |
topic_facet |
Marine Sciences Meteorology and Climatology Glaciology |
description |
Over the last half century, the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) has been among the most rapidly warming regions on Earth. This has led to increased summer snowmelt, loss of ice shelves, and retreat of 87% of marine and tidewater glacier fronts. Tidewater-glacier flow is sensitive to changes in basal water supply and to thinning of the terminus, and faster flow leads directly to sea level rise. The flow rates of most AP tidewater glaciers have never been measured, however, and hence their dynamic response to the recent changes is unknown. We present repeated flow rate measurements from over 300 glaciers on the AP west coast through nine summers from 1992 to 2005. We show that the flow rate increased by similar to 12% on average and that this trend is greater than the seasonal variability in flow rate. We attribute this widespread acceleration trend not to meltwater-enhanced lubrication or increased snowfall but to a dynamic response to frontal thinning. We estimate that as a result, the annual sea level contribution from this region has increased by 0.047 +/- 0.011 mm between 1993 and 2003. This contribution, together with previous studies that assessed increased runoff from the area and acceleration of glaciers resulting from the removal of ice shelves, implies a combined AP contribution of 0.16 +/- 0.06 mm yr(-1). This is comparable to the contribution from Alaskan glaciers, and combined with estimated mass loss from West Antarctica, is probably large enough to outweigh mass gains in East Antarctica and to make the total Antarctic sea level contribution positive. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pritchard, Hamish D. Vaughan, David G. |
author_facet |
Pritchard, Hamish D. Vaughan, David G. |
author_sort |
Pritchard, Hamish D. |
title |
Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula |
title_short |
Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula |
title_full |
Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula |
title_fullStr |
Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula |
title_full_unstemmed |
Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula |
title_sort |
widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the antarctic peninsula |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/11891/ http://www.agu.org/journals/jf/jf0702/2006JF000597/2006JF000597.pdf |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula East Antarctica West Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula East Antarctica West Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Shelves Tidewater West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Shelves Tidewater West Antarctica |
op_relation |
Pritchard, Hamish D. orcid:0000-0003-2936-1734 Vaughan, David G. orcid:0000-0002-9065-0570 . 2007 Widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula. Journal of Geophysical Research, 112 (F3), F03S29. 10, pp. https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JF000597 <https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JF000597> |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JF000597 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research |
container_volume |
112 |
container_issue |
F3 |
_version_ |
1766214801933991936 |