TY - JOUR
T1 - A Major Collapse of Kangerlussuaq Glacier's Ice Tongue Between 1932 and 1933 in East Greenland
AU - Vermassen, Flor
AU - Bjørk, Anders A.
AU - Sicre, Marie-Alexandrine
AU - Jaeger, John M.
AU - Wangner, David J.
AU - Kjeldsen, Kristian K.
AU - Siggaard-Andersen, Marie-Louise
AU - Klein, Vincent
AU - Mouginot, Jeremie
AU - Kjær, Kurt H.
AU - Andresen, Camilla S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study is a contribution to the VILLUM project ?Past and Future Dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet: what is the ocean hiding?? (10100). A. A. B. was funded by the Carlsberg Foundation (Grant CF17-0529). We thank the CNRS for salary support of M. A. S. and V. K., and the NAIV project funded by LEFE/INSU. We thank James Lea and an anonymous reviewer for their insightful comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020. The Authors.
PY - 2020/2/28
Y1 - 2020/2/28
N2 - In recent years, several large outlet glaciers in Greenland lost their floating ice tongue, yet little is known regarding their stability over a longer timescale. Here we compile historical documents to demonstrate a major ice tongue collapse of Kangerlussuaq Glacier between 1932 and 1933. This event resulted in a 9-km retreat, exceeding any of the glacier's recent major retreat events. Sediment cores from the fjord are used to reconstruct sea surface temperatures and to investigate a potential sedimentological trace of the collapse. During the 1920s, local and regional sea surface temperatures and air temperatures increased rapidly, suggesting a climatic trigger for the collapse. Fjord bathymetry played an important role too, as the (partially) pinned ice tongue retreated off a submarine moraine during the event. This historical analogue of a glacier tongue collapse emphasizes the fragility of remaining ice tongues in North Greenland within a warming climate.
AB - In recent years, several large outlet glaciers in Greenland lost their floating ice tongue, yet little is known regarding their stability over a longer timescale. Here we compile historical documents to demonstrate a major ice tongue collapse of Kangerlussuaq Glacier between 1932 and 1933. This event resulted in a 9-km retreat, exceeding any of the glacier's recent major retreat events. Sediment cores from the fjord are used to reconstruct sea surface temperatures and to investigate a potential sedimentological trace of the collapse. During the 1920s, local and regional sea surface temperatures and air temperatures increased rapidly, suggesting a climatic trigger for the collapse. Fjord bathymetry played an important role too, as the (partially) pinned ice tongue retreated off a submarine moraine during the event. This historical analogue of a glacier tongue collapse emphasizes the fragility of remaining ice tongues in North Greenland within a warming climate.
KW - alkenones
KW - Glacier retreat
KW - historical documents
KW - IRD
KW - Kangerlussuaq Glacier
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081088257&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1029/2019GL085954
DO - 10.1029/2019GL085954
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85081088257
VL - 47
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
SN - 0094-8276
IS - 4
M1 - e2019GL085954
ER -