Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming
Ice flow along land-terminating margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) varies considerably in response to fluctuating inputs of surface meltwater to the bed of the ice sheet. Such inputs lubricate the ice-bed interface, transiently speeding up the flow of ice. Greater melting results in faster ice...
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Online Access: | https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/25996/ https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/25996/1/nature15722.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/nature15722 |
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ftulincoln:oai:eprints.lincoln.ac.uk:25996 2023-05-15T16:28:14+02:00 Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming Tedstone, Andrew J. Nienow, Peter W. Gourmelen, Noel Dehecq, Amaury Goldberg, Daniel Hanna, Edward 2015-10-29 application/pdf https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/25996/ https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/25996/1/nature15722.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/nature15722 en eng Nature Publishing Group https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/25996/1/nature15722.pdf Tedstone, Andrew J., Nienow, Peter W., Gourmelen, Noel, Dehecq, Amaury, Goldberg, Daniel and Hanna, Edward (2015) Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming. Nature, 526 (7575). pp. 692-695. ISSN 0028-0836 doi:10.1038/nature15722 F330 Environmental Physics Article PeerReviewed 2015 ftulincoln https://doi.org/10.1038/nature15722 2022-03-02T20:07:06Z Ice flow along land-terminating margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) varies considerably in response to fluctuating inputs of surface meltwater to the bed of the ice sheet. Such inputs lubricate the ice-bed interface, transiently speeding up the flow of ice. Greater melting results in faster ice motion during summer, but slower motion over the subsequent winter, owing to the evolution of an efficient drainage system that enables water to drain from regions of the ice-sheet bed that have a high basal water pressure. However, the impact of hydrodynamic coupling on ice motion over decadal timescales remains poorly constrained. Here we show that annual ice motion across an 8,000-km2 land-terminating region of the west GIS margin, extending to 1,100 m above sea level, was 12 slower in 2007-14 compared with 1985-94, despite a 50 increase in surface meltwater production. Our findings suggest that, over these three decades, hydrodynamic coupling in this section of the ablation zone resulted in a net slowdown of ice motion (not a speed-up, as previously postulated). Increases in meltwater production from projected climate warming may therefore further reduce the motion of land-terminating margins of the GIS. Our findings suggest that these sectors of the ice sheet are more resilient to the dynamic impacts of enhanced meltwater production than previously thought. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet University of Lincoln: Lincoln Repository Greenland Nature 526 7575 692 695 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Lincoln: Lincoln Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftulincoln |
language |
English |
topic |
F330 Environmental Physics |
spellingShingle |
F330 Environmental Physics Tedstone, Andrew J. Nienow, Peter W. Gourmelen, Noel Dehecq, Amaury Goldberg, Daniel Hanna, Edward Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming |
topic_facet |
F330 Environmental Physics |
description |
Ice flow along land-terminating margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) varies considerably in response to fluctuating inputs of surface meltwater to the bed of the ice sheet. Such inputs lubricate the ice-bed interface, transiently speeding up the flow of ice. Greater melting results in faster ice motion during summer, but slower motion over the subsequent winter, owing to the evolution of an efficient drainage system that enables water to drain from regions of the ice-sheet bed that have a high basal water pressure. However, the impact of hydrodynamic coupling on ice motion over decadal timescales remains poorly constrained. Here we show that annual ice motion across an 8,000-km2 land-terminating region of the west GIS margin, extending to 1,100 m above sea level, was 12 slower in 2007-14 compared with 1985-94, despite a 50 increase in surface meltwater production. Our findings suggest that, over these three decades, hydrodynamic coupling in this section of the ablation zone resulted in a net slowdown of ice motion (not a speed-up, as previously postulated). Increases in meltwater production from projected climate warming may therefore further reduce the motion of land-terminating margins of the GIS. Our findings suggest that these sectors of the ice sheet are more resilient to the dynamic impacts of enhanced meltwater production than previously thought. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tedstone, Andrew J. Nienow, Peter W. Gourmelen, Noel Dehecq, Amaury Goldberg, Daniel Hanna, Edward |
author_facet |
Tedstone, Andrew J. Nienow, Peter W. Gourmelen, Noel Dehecq, Amaury Goldberg, Daniel Hanna, Edward |
author_sort |
Tedstone, Andrew J. |
title |
Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming |
title_short |
Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming |
title_full |
Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming |
title_fullStr |
Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming |
title_full_unstemmed |
Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming |
title_sort |
decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the greenland ice sheet despite warming |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/25996/ https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/25996/1/nature15722.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/nature15722 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/25996/1/nature15722.pdf Tedstone, Andrew J., Nienow, Peter W., Gourmelen, Noel, Dehecq, Amaury, Goldberg, Daniel and Hanna, Edward (2015) Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming. Nature, 526 (7575). pp. 692-695. ISSN 0028-0836 doi:10.1038/nature15722 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature15722 |
container_title |
Nature |
container_volume |
526 |
container_issue |
7575 |
container_start_page |
692 |
op_container_end_page |
695 |
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1766017866230923264 |