Title: Dynamic Thickness Change of Greenlandic Outlet Glaciers
Abstract: For the past two decades, glaciers around Greenland are retreating, accelerating, and becoming thinner primarily due to the warming North Atlantic. The observed heterogeneous rates of retreat and diffusive thinning, however, suggest local factors besides the climatic perturbation. In this study, we investigate the glacier characteristics interact with changes in ice overburden pressure and basal lubrication, and their impact on diffusive thinning rates and spatial patterns, through numerical experiments across idealized glacier domains resembling Greenland. Our findings underscore the significance of local stress state alterations in determining spatial thinning variation and emphasize the crucial role of grounding line position, rather than ice front position, in the overall thinning across a glacier domain. We further test our insights by numerically simulating the decadal dynamic thinning history of Helheim Glacier in Southeast Greenland. The preliminary results corroborate with findings from our synthetic glacier studies.
To join virtually: Zoom
Contact: dyang379@gatech.edu
Recording: Zoom Recording (will be available within a week after the seminar)