A Closer Look at Greenland’s Ice Sheet Margins and Glacier Outlets

Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, October 27

Over the past three decades, the Greenland Ice Sheet ice transitioned from near balance to rapid mass loss, due to increasing temperatures in the atmosphere and ocean. For the outlet glaciers of Greenland, feeding into the oceans, multiple factors affect the behavior of individual glaciers and their impacts on both land and sea ecosystems, including the scale and speed of retreat of glacier termini; changes in water movement underneath the ice sheet; and the speed of ice flow. As ice mass loss continues and potentially accelerates, especially under high emissions scenarios, we will see continued complex local outlet glacier influences both on, and feedbacks from melt rates, iceberg production, marine food chains, ecosystems, and the people who depend upon them; as well as more global impacts such as sea-level rise.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020JF005585

Compiled by Amy Imdieke.