Warming seas are accelerating the retreat of Greenland’s coastal glaciers.
Sverdrup Glacier in northwest Greenland is pretty average. It is a textbook example of the many coastal glaciers around the island that flow into deep fjords. But Sverdrup also represents a large class of Greenland glaciers that are undergoing rapid retreat in response to warm ocean water.
This image, acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, shows Sverdrup Glacier on September 21, 2020. Lines indicate the retreating position of the glacier front since 2000.
The position in 2000 was similar to the mid-1980s, indicating that there had been a period of stability when ocean temperatures were cool. Then, between 1998 and 2007, waters around Greenland warmed rapidly—almost 2 degrees Celsius—and the glacier started to thin, flow faster, and retreat.
Continue reading at NASA Earth Observatory
Image via NASA Earth Observatory
