Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Author Posting. © Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 31 (2014): 79-82.
Description:
During the past decades, the Greenland ice sheet has experienced
a marked increase in mass loss resulting in an increased
contribution to global sea-level rise. The three largest outlet
glaciers in Greenland have increased their discharge, accelerated,
thinned and retreated between 1996 and 2005. After
2005 most of them have slowed down again although not
to previous levels. Geodetic observations suggest that rapid
increase in mass loss from the north-western part of the ice
sheet occurred during 2005–2010 (Kjeldsen et al. 2013).
Warming of the subsurface water masses off Greenland
may have triggered the acceleration of outlet glaciers from
the ice sheet (Straneo & Heimbach 2013). The North Atlantic subpolar gyre, which transports water to South-East and
West Greenland via the warm Irminger Current, warmed
in the mid-1990s. Increased inflow of warm subpolar waters
likely led to increased submarine melting of tidewater glaciers.
Climate, glacier configuration and fjord bathymetry
play fundamental roles for outlet glacier dynamics and thus
knowledge of these parameters is warranted. In particular,
the bathymetry of a fjord gives important information about
the exchange between fjord waters close to marine-terminating
glaciers and the shelf and ocean. However, only sparse
bathymetric data are available for the majority of fjords in
Greenland. The International bathymetry chart for the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) does not provide adequate data for the
fjords and gives the impression that water depths in fjords are
typically 〈200 m.
Here we present the first detailed bathymetric data from
Upernavik Isfjord in North-West Greenland, which were obtained
during a cruise led by the Geological Survey of Denmark
and Greenland in August 2013. The purpose of the
cruise was to retrieve sediment cores, collect hydrographic
data and map the bathymetry of the fjord. In this paper, we
also estimate retreat rates of the Upernavik Isstrøm since
1849 and evaluate them in the context of climate variability,
glacier setting and fjord bathymetry.
Description:
The ‘Upernavik Glacier Project’ is funded by Geocenter Danmark.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
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