Melting at the base of the Greenland ice sheet explained by Iceland hotspot history
Ice-penetrating radar1,2,3 and ice core drilling4 have shown that large parts of the north-central Greenland ice sheet are melting from below. It has been argued that basal ice melt is due to the anomalously high geothermal flux1,4 that has also influenced the development of the longest ice stream i...
Published in: | Nature Geoscience |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Nature Research
2016
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/1/ngeo2689.pdf https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/2/ngeo2689-s1.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2689 |
id |
ftoceanrep:oai:oceanrep.geomar.de:44304 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftoceanrep:oai:oceanrep.geomar.de:44304 2023-08-27T04:09:38+02:00 Melting at the base of the Greenland ice sheet explained by Iceland hotspot history Rogozhina, Irina Petrunin, Alexey G. Vaughan, Alan P. M. Steinberger, Bernhard Johnson, Jesse V. Kaban, Mikhail K. Calov, Reinhard Rickers, Florian Thomas, Maik Koulakov, Ivan 2016-04-04 text https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/1/ngeo2689.pdf https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/2/ngeo2689-s1.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2689 en eng Nature Research https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/1/ngeo2689.pdf https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/2/ngeo2689-s1.pdf Rogozhina, I., Petrunin, A. G., Vaughan, A. P. M., Steinberger, B., Johnson, J. V., Kaban, M. K., Calov, R., Rickers, F., Thomas, M. and Koulakov, I. (2016) Melting at the base of the Greenland ice sheet explained by Iceland hotspot history. Nature Geoscience, 9 (5). pp. 366-369. DOI 10.1038/ngeo2689 <https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2689>. doi:10.1038/ngeo2689 info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Article PeerReviewed 2016 ftoceanrep https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2689 2023-08-06T23:19:54Z Ice-penetrating radar1,2,3 and ice core drilling4 have shown that large parts of the north-central Greenland ice sheet are melting from below. It has been argued that basal ice melt is due to the anomalously high geothermal flux1,4 that has also influenced the development of the longest ice stream in Greenland1. Here we estimate the geothermal flux beneath the Greenland ice sheet and identify a 1,200-km-long and 400-km-wide geothermal anomaly beneath the thick ice cover. We suggest that this anomaly explains the observed melting of the ice sheet’s base, which drives the vigorous subglacial hydrology3 and controls the position of the head of the enigmatic 750-km-long northeastern Greenland ice stream5. Our combined analysis of independent seismic, gravity and tectonic data6,7,8,9 implies that the geothermal anomaly, which crosses Greenland from west to east, was formed by Greenland’s passage over the Iceland mantle plume between roughly 80 and 35 million years ago. We conclude that the complexity of the present-day subglacial hydrology and dynamic features of the north-central Greenland ice sheet originated in tectonic events that pre-date the onset of glaciation in Greenland by many tens of millions of years. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland ice core Ice Sheet Iceland OceanRep (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre für Ocean Research Kiel) Greenland Nature Geoscience 9 5 366 369 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OceanRep (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre für Ocean Research Kiel) |
op_collection_id |
ftoceanrep |
language |
English |
description |
Ice-penetrating radar1,2,3 and ice core drilling4 have shown that large parts of the north-central Greenland ice sheet are melting from below. It has been argued that basal ice melt is due to the anomalously high geothermal flux1,4 that has also influenced the development of the longest ice stream in Greenland1. Here we estimate the geothermal flux beneath the Greenland ice sheet and identify a 1,200-km-long and 400-km-wide geothermal anomaly beneath the thick ice cover. We suggest that this anomaly explains the observed melting of the ice sheet’s base, which drives the vigorous subglacial hydrology3 and controls the position of the head of the enigmatic 750-km-long northeastern Greenland ice stream5. Our combined analysis of independent seismic, gravity and tectonic data6,7,8,9 implies that the geothermal anomaly, which crosses Greenland from west to east, was formed by Greenland’s passage over the Iceland mantle plume between roughly 80 and 35 million years ago. We conclude that the complexity of the present-day subglacial hydrology and dynamic features of the north-central Greenland ice sheet originated in tectonic events that pre-date the onset of glaciation in Greenland by many tens of millions of years. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rogozhina, Irina Petrunin, Alexey G. Vaughan, Alan P. M. Steinberger, Bernhard Johnson, Jesse V. Kaban, Mikhail K. Calov, Reinhard Rickers, Florian Thomas, Maik Koulakov, Ivan |
spellingShingle |
Rogozhina, Irina Petrunin, Alexey G. Vaughan, Alan P. M. Steinberger, Bernhard Johnson, Jesse V. Kaban, Mikhail K. Calov, Reinhard Rickers, Florian Thomas, Maik Koulakov, Ivan Melting at the base of the Greenland ice sheet explained by Iceland hotspot history |
author_facet |
Rogozhina, Irina Petrunin, Alexey G. Vaughan, Alan P. M. Steinberger, Bernhard Johnson, Jesse V. Kaban, Mikhail K. Calov, Reinhard Rickers, Florian Thomas, Maik Koulakov, Ivan |
author_sort |
Rogozhina, Irina |
title |
Melting at the base of the Greenland ice sheet explained by Iceland hotspot history |
title_short |
Melting at the base of the Greenland ice sheet explained by Iceland hotspot history |
title_full |
Melting at the base of the Greenland ice sheet explained by Iceland hotspot history |
title_fullStr |
Melting at the base of the Greenland ice sheet explained by Iceland hotspot history |
title_full_unstemmed |
Melting at the base of the Greenland ice sheet explained by Iceland hotspot history |
title_sort |
melting at the base of the greenland ice sheet explained by iceland hotspot history |
publisher |
Nature Research |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/1/ngeo2689.pdf https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/2/ngeo2689-s1.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2689 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland ice core Ice Sheet Iceland |
genre_facet |
Greenland ice core Ice Sheet Iceland |
op_relation |
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/1/ngeo2689.pdf https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44304/2/ngeo2689-s1.pdf Rogozhina, I., Petrunin, A. G., Vaughan, A. P. M., Steinberger, B., Johnson, J. V., Kaban, M. K., Calov, R., Rickers, F., Thomas, M. and Koulakov, I. (2016) Melting at the base of the Greenland ice sheet explained by Iceland hotspot history. Nature Geoscience, 9 (5). pp. 366-369. DOI 10.1038/ngeo2689 <https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2689>. doi:10.1038/ngeo2689 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2689 |
container_title |
Nature Geoscience |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
366 |
op_container_end_page |
369 |
_version_ |
1775351178772611072 |