Accelerating glacier volume loss on Juneau Icefield driven by hypsometry and melt-accelerating feedbacks.

Globally, glaciers and icefields contribute significantly to sea level rise. Here we show that ice loss from Juneau Icefield, a plateau icefield in Alaska, accelerated after 2005 AD. Rates of area shrinkage were 5 times faster from 2015-2019 than from 1979-1990. Glacier volume loss remained fairly c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Communications
Main Authors: Davies, Bethan, McNabb, Robert, Bendle, Jacob, Carrivick, Jonathan, Ely, Jeremy, Holt, Tom, Markle, Bradley, McNeil, Christopher, Nicholson, Lindsey, Pelto, Mauri
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2024
Subjects:
glacier
glaciers
Alaska
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49269-y
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38956392
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11220083/
Description
Summary:Globally, glaciers and icefields contribute significantly to sea level rise. Here we show that ice loss from Juneau Icefield, a plateau icefield in Alaska, accelerated after 2005 AD. Rates of area shrinkage were 5 times faster from 2015-2019 than from 1979-1990. Glacier volume loss remained fairly consistent (0.65-1.01 km3 a-1) from 1770-1979 AD, rising to 3.08-3.72 km3 a-1 from 1979-2010, and then doubling after 2010 AD, reaching 5.91 ± 0.80 km3 a-1 (2010-2020). Thinning has become pervasive across the icefield plateau since 2005, accompanied by glacier recession and fragmentation. Rising equilibrium line altitudes and increasing ablation across the plateau has driven a series of hypsometrically controlled melt-accelerating feedbacks and resulted in the observed acceleration in mass loss. As glacier thinning on the plateau continues, a mass balance-elevation feedback is likely to inhibit future glacier regrowth, potentially pushing glaciers beyond a dynamic tipping point.

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