Holocene thinning in central Greenland controlled by the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream

Ice-core records from the interior of the Greenland ice sheet suggest widespread thinning during the Holocene. However, the recurring underestimation of this thinning in numerical models raises concerns about both the veracity of such reconstructions and the reliability of glaciological models. Rece...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Communications
Main Authors: Tabone, Ilaria, Robinson, Alexander James, Montoya Redondo, María Luisa, Álvarez Solas, Jorge
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Nature Research 2024
Subjects:
550.3
Subglacial hydrology
Mass-Loss
Sheet
Model
Core
Temperature
Deglaciation
Melt
Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden
Propagation
Geofísica
2507 Geofísica
Greenland
ice core
Ice Sheet
NGRIP
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/116296
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50772-5
Description
Summary:Ice-core records from the interior of the Greenland ice sheet suggest widespread thinning during the Holocene. However, the recurring underestimation of this thinning in numerical models raises concerns about both the veracity of such reconstructions and the reliability of glaciological models. Recent work suggests the 8000-year-old Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS), including a now-extinct northern tributary, may have been an early influence on Greenland ice-sheet dynamics. Yet, the inaccurate reproduction of NEGIS-like dynamics in most models hampers investigation of whether this feature played a role in Holocene ice-sheet thinning. Here we show that grounding-line retreat in northeast Greenland triggers elevation changes at the northern summit via ice-dynamic effects modulated by the paleo NEGIS system. In our simulations, fast ice-stream flow caused by transiently imposed reduced basal shear stress following the northeast retreat explains 55% ( ± 18%) of the estimated ice thinning, showing that ice-stream dynamics is one of the main drivers of the NGRIP Holocene surface elevation drop. Our findings show that the ice-flow in northeast Greenland plays a large role in ice-surface elevation changes in central Greenland. Humboldt Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España) Unión Europea Erlangen National High Performance Computing Centre (NHR@FAU) at Friedrich-Alexander-Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg (FAU) German Research Foundation (DFG) Depto. de Física de la Tierra y Astrofísica Fac. de Ciencias Físicas TRUE pub

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