Rights statement: (c) 2018, Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Nature Geoscience. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0082-z
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Net retreat of Antarctic glacier grounding lines
AU - Konrad, Hannes
AU - Shepherd, Andrew
AU - Gilbert, Lin
AU - Hogg, Anna E.
AU - McMillan, Malcolm
AU - Muir, Alan
AU - Slater, Thomas
N1 - (c) 2018, Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Nature Geoscience. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0082-z
PY - 2018/4/1
Y1 - 2018/4/1
N2 - Grounding lines are a key indicator of ice-sheet instability, because changes in their position reflect imbalance with the surrounding ocean and affect the flow of inland ice. Although the grounding lines of several Antarctic glaciers have retreated rapidly due to ocean-driven melting, records are too scarce to assess the scale of the imbalance. Here, we combine satellite altimeter observations of ice-elevation change and measurements of ice geometry to track grounding-line movement around the entire continent, tripling the coverage of previous surveys. Between 2010 and 2016, 22%, 3% and 10% of surveyed grounding lines in West Antarctica, East Antarctica and at the Antarctic Peninsula retreated at rates faster than 25 m yr-1 (the typical pace since the Last Glacial Maximum) and the continent has lost 1,463 km2 ± 791 km2 of grounded-ice area. Although by far the fastest rates of retreat occurred in the Amundsen Sea sector, we show that the Pine Island Glacier grounding line has stabilized, probably as a consequence of abated ocean forcing. On average, Antarctica's fast-flowing ice streams retreat by 110 metres per metre of ice thinning.
AB - Grounding lines are a key indicator of ice-sheet instability, because changes in their position reflect imbalance with the surrounding ocean and affect the flow of inland ice. Although the grounding lines of several Antarctic glaciers have retreated rapidly due to ocean-driven melting, records are too scarce to assess the scale of the imbalance. Here, we combine satellite altimeter observations of ice-elevation change and measurements of ice geometry to track grounding-line movement around the entire continent, tripling the coverage of previous surveys. Between 2010 and 2016, 22%, 3% and 10% of surveyed grounding lines in West Antarctica, East Antarctica and at the Antarctic Peninsula retreated at rates faster than 25 m yr-1 (the typical pace since the Last Glacial Maximum) and the continent has lost 1,463 km2 ± 791 km2 of grounded-ice area. Although by far the fastest rates of retreat occurred in the Amundsen Sea sector, we show that the Pine Island Glacier grounding line has stabilized, probably as a consequence of abated ocean forcing. On average, Antarctica's fast-flowing ice streams retreat by 110 metres per metre of ice thinning.
U2 - 10.1038/s41561-018-0082-z
DO - 10.1038/s41561-018-0082-z
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85044726576
VL - 11
SP - 258
EP - 262
JO - Nature Geoscience
JF - Nature Geoscience
SN - 1752-0894
IS - 4
ER -