Dynamic thinning of glaciers on the Southern Antarctic Peninsula
Increasingly rapid ice sheet melting
Glaciers on the Southern Antarctic Peninsula have begun losing mass at a rapid and accelerating rate. Wouters et al. documented the dramatic thinning of the land-based ice, which began in 2009, using satellite altimetry and gravity observations. The melting and weakening of ice shelves reduce their buttressing effect, allowing the glaciers to flow more quickly to the sea.
Science, this issue p. 899
Abstract
Growing evidence has demonstrated the importance of ice shelf buttressing on the inland grounded ice, especially if it is resting on bedrock below sea level. Much of the Southern Antarctic Peninsula satisfies this condition and also possesses a bed slope that deepens inland. Such ice sheet geometry is potentially unstable. We use satellite altimetry and gravity observations to show that a major portion of the region has, since 2009, destabilized. Ice mass loss of the marine-terminating glaciers has rapidly accelerated from close to balance in the 2000s to a sustained rate of –56 ± 8 gigatons per year, constituting a major fraction of Antarctica’s contribution to rising sea level. The widespread, simultaneous nature of the acceleration, in the absence of a persistent atmospheric forcing, points to an oceanic driving mechanism.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Already a Subscriber?Sign In
Supplementary Material
Summary
Materials and Methods
Figs. S1 to S9
Tables S1 to S4
Resources
File (wouters-sm.pdf)
References and Notes
1
Vaughan D. G., Doake C. S. M., Recent atmospheric warming and retreat of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula. Nature 379, 328–331 (1996).
2
Cook A. J., Vaughan D. G., Overview of areal changes of the ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula over the past 50 years. Cryosphere 4, 77–98 (2010).
3
Rott H., Rack W., Skvarca P., de Angelis H., Northern Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica: Further retreat after collapse. Ann. Glaciol. 34, 277–282 (2002).
4
De Angelis H., Skvarca P., Glacier surge after ice shelf collapse. Science 299, 1560–1562 (2003).
5
Scambos T. A., Berthier E., Haran T., Shuman C. A., Cook A. J., Ligtenberg S. R. M., Bohlander J., Detailed ice loss pattern in the northern Antarctic Peninsula: Widespread decline driven by ice front retreats. Cryosphere 8, 2135–2145 (2014).
6
Rebesco M., Domack E., Zgur F., Lavoie C., Leventer A., Brachfeld S., Willmott V., Halverson G., Truffer M., Scambos T., Smith J., Pettit E., Boundary condition of grounding lines prior to collapse, Larsen-B Ice Shelf, Antarctica. Science 345, 1354–1358 (2014).
7
Huss M., Farinotti D., A high-resolution bedrock map for the Antarctic Peninsula. Cryosphere 8, 1261–1273 (2014).
8
Bamber J. L., Riva R. E. M., Vermeersen B. L. A., LeBrocq A. M., Reassessment of the potential sea-level rise from a collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Science 324, 901–903 (2009).
9
Schoof C., Ice sheet grounding line dynamics: Steady states, stability, and hysteresis. J. Geophys. Res. 112 (F3), 3 (2007).
10
Favier L., Durand G., Cornford S. L., Gudmundsson G. H., Gagliardini O., Gillet-Chaulet F., Zwinger T., Payne A. J., Le Brocq A. M., Retreat of Pine Island Glacier controlled by marine ice-sheet instability. Nature Climate Change 4, 117–121 (2014).
11
Joughin I., Smith B. E., Medley B., Marine ice sheet collapse potentially under way for the Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica. Science 344, 735–738 (2014).
12
Pritchard H. D., Ligtenberg S. R., Fricker H. A., Vaughan D. G., van den Broeke M. R., Padman L., Antarctic ice-sheet loss driven by basal melting of ice shelves. Nature 484, 502–505 (2012).
13
Flament T., Rémy F., Dynamic thinning of Antarctic glaciers from along-track repeat radar altimetry. J. Glaciol. 58, 830–840 (2012).
14
Bingham R. G., Ferraccioli F., King E. C., Larter R. D., Pritchard H. D., Smith A. M., Vaughan D. G., Inland thinning of West Antarctic Ice Sheet steered along subglacial rifts. Nature 487, 468–471 (2012).
15
King M. A., Bingham R. J., Moore P., Whitehouse P. L., Bentley M. J., Milne G. A., Lower satellite-gravimetry estimates of Antarctic sea-level contribution. Nature 491, 586–589 (2012).
16
Wingham D. J., Francis C. R., Baker S., Bouzinac C., Brockley D., Cullen R., de Chateau-Thierry P., Laxon S. W., Mallow U., Mavrocordatos C., Phalippou L., Ratier G., Rey L., Rostan F., Viau P., Wallis D. W., CryoSat: A mission to determine the fluctuations in Earth’s land and marine ice fields. Adv. Space Res. 37, 841–871 (2006).
17
McMillan M., Shepherd A., Sundal A., Briggs K., Muir A., Ridout A., Hogg A., Wingham D., Increased ice losses from Antarctica detected by CryoSat-2. Geophys. Res. Lett. 41, 3899–3905 (2014).
18
Helm V., Humbert A., Miller H., Elevation and elevation change of Greenland and Antarctica derived from CryoSat-2. Cryosphere 8, 1539–1559 (2014).
19
Thomas E. R., Marshall G. J., McConnell J. R., A doubling in snow accumulation in the western Antarctic Peninsula since 1850. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, 1706 (2008).
20
Materials and methods are available as supplementary materials on Science Online.
21
H. Zwally, M. B. Giovinetto, M. A. Beckley, J. L. Saba, Antarctic and Greenland Drainage Systems (GSF Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory, Greenbelt, MD, 2012).
22
Shepherd A., Ivins E. R., A G., Barletta V. R., Bentley M. J., Bettadpur S., Briggs K. H., Bromwich D. H., Forsberg R., Galin N., Horwath M., Jacobs S., Joughin I., King M. A., Lenaerts J. T., Li J., Ligtenberg S. R., Luckman A., Luthcke S. B., McMillan M., Meister R., Milne G., Mouginot J., Muir A., Nicolas J. P., Paden J., Payne A. J., Pritchard H., Rignot E., Rott H., Sørensen L. S., Scambos T. A., Scheuchl B., Schrama E. J., Smith B., Sundal A. V., van Angelen J. H., van de Berg W. J., van den Broeke M. R., Vaughan D. G., Velicogna I., Wahr J., Whitehouse P. L., Wingham D. J., Yi D., Young D., Zwally H. J., A reconciled estimate of ice-sheet mass balance. Science 338, 1183–1189 (2012).
23
Ligtenberg S. R. M., Helsen M. M., van den Broeke M. R., An improved semi-empirical model for the densification of Antarctic firn. Cryosphere 5, 809–819 (2011).
24
van Wessem J. M., Reijmer C. H., Morlighem M., Mouginot J., Rignot E., Medley B., Joughin I., Wouters B., Depoorter M. A., Bamber J. L., Lenaerts J. T. M., De Van Berg W. J., Van Den Broeke M. R., Van Meijgaard E., Improved representation of East Antarctic surface mass balance in a regional atmospheric climate model. J. Glaciol. 60, 761–770 (2014).
25
Tapley B., Bettadpur S., Watkins M., Reigber C., The gravity recovery and climate experiment: Mission overview and early results. Geophys. Res. Lett. 31, L09607 (2004).
26
Dupont T. K., Alley R. B., Assessment of the importance of ice-shelf buttressing to ice-sheet flow. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, 4503 (2005).
27
Holland D., Thomas R., de Young B., Ribergaard M., Lyberth B., Acceleration of Jakobshavn Isbræ triggered by warm subsurface ocean waters. Nat. Geosci. 1, 659–664 (2008).
28
Schmidtko S., Heywood K. J., Thompson A. F., Aoki S., Multidecadal warming of Antarctic waters. Science 346, 1227–1231 (2014).
29
Holt T. O., Glasser N. F., Quincey D. J., Siegfried M. R., Speedup and fracturing of George VI Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula. Cryosphere 7, 797–816 (2013).
30
Depoorter M. A., Bamber J. L., Griggs J. A., Lenaerts J. T., Ligtenberg S. R., van den Broeke M. R., Moholdt G., Calving fluxes and basal melt rates of Antarctic ice shelves. Nature 502, 89–92 (2013).
31
Rignot E., Jacobs S., Mouginot J., Scheuchl B., Ice-shelf melting around Antarctica. Science 341, 266–270 (2013).
32
Paolo F. S., Fricker H. A., Padman L., Science 26, (2015).
33
Mouginot J., Rignot E., Scheuchl B., Sustained increase in ice discharge from the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, from 1973 to 2013. Geophys. Res. Lett. 41, 1576–1584 (2014).
34
Dutrieux P., De Rydt J., Jenkins A., Holland P. R., Ha H. K., Lee S. H., Steig E. J., Ding Q., Abrahamsen E. P., Schröder M., Strong sensitivity of Pine Island ice-shelf melting to climatic variability. Science 343, 174–178 (2014).
35
Sutterley T. C., Velicogna I., Rignot E., Mouginot J., Flament T., van den Broeke M. R., van Wessem J. M., Reijmer C. H., Mass loss of the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica from four independent techniques. Geophys. Res. Lett. 41, 8421–8428 (2014).
36
Rignot E., Mouginot J., Scheuchl B., Ice flow of the Antarctic ice sheet. Science 333, 1427–1430 (2011).
37
The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, SCAR Antarctic Digital Database; available at www.add.scar.org, accessed 26 March 2015.
38
Davis C., A robust threshold retracking algorithm for measuring ice-sheet surface elevation change from satellite radar altimeters. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Rem. Sens. 35, 974–979 (1997).
39
Armitage T., Wingham D., Ridout A., Meteorological origin of the static crossover pattern present in low-resolution-mode CryoSat-2 data over Central Antarctica. IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens. Lett. 11, 1295–1299 (2014).
40
Jensen J. R., Angle measurement with a phase monopulse radar altimeter. IEEE Trans. Antenn. Propag. 47, 715–724 (1999).
41
Howat I. M., Smith B. E., Joughin I., Scambos T. A., Rates of southeast Greenland ice volume loss from combined ICESat and ASTER observations. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, 17505 (2008).
42
Moholdt G., Nuth C., Hagen J. O., Kohler J., Recent elevation changes of Svalbard glaciers derived from ICESat laser altimetry. Remote Sens. Environ. 114, 2756–2767 (2010).
43
Ewert H., Groh A., Dietrich R., Volume and mass changes of the Greenland ice sheet inferred from ICESat and GRACE. J. Geodyn. 59, 111–123 (2012).
44
W. B. Krabill, IceBridge ATM L2 Icessn Elevation, Slope, and Roughness. Version 2 (ILATM2), Boulder, Colorado USA: NASA DAAC at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (2014); updated 2014.
45
Sørensen L. S., Simonsen S. B., Nielsen K., Lucas-Picher P., Spada G., Adalgeirsdottir G., Forsberg R., Hvidberg C. S., Mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet (2003–2008) from ICESat data—The impact of interpolation, sampling and firn density. Cryosphere 5, 173–186 (2011).
46
Hofton M. A., Luthcke S. B., Blair J. B., Estimation of ICESat intercampaign elevation biases from comparison of lidar data in East Antarctica. Geophys. Res. Lett. 40, 5698–5703 (2013).
47
Borsa A. A., Moholdt G., Fricker H. A., Brunt K. M., A range correction for ICESat and its potential impact on ice-sheet mass balance studies. Cryosphere 8, 345–357 (2014).
48
Ridley J. K., Partington K. C., A model of satellite radar altimeter return from ice sheets. Int. J. Remote Sens. 9, 601–624 (1988).
49
B. Legrésy, F. Rémy, F. Blarel, Proceedings of the Symposium on 15 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry, 13–18 March 2006, Venice, Italy, ESA SP 614 (European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands, 2006).
50
Lacroix P., Legrésy B., Rémy F., Blarel F., Picard G., Brucker L., Rapid change of snow surface properties at Vostok, East Antarctica, revealed by altimetry and radiometry. Remote Sens. Environ. 113, 2633–2641 (2009).
51
Rémy F., Flament T., Blarel F., Benveniste J., Radar altimetry measurements over antarctic ice sheet: A focus on antenna polarization and change in backscatter problems. Adv. Space Res. 50, 998–1006 (2012).
52
Gardner A. S., Moholdt G., Wouters B., Wolken G. J., Burgess D. O., Sharp M. J., Cogley J. G., Braun C., Labine C., Sharply increased mass loss from glaciers and ice caps in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Nature 473, 357–360 (2011).
53
Arendt A. A., Echelmeyer K. A., Harrison W. D., Lingle C. S., Valentine V. B., Rapid wastage of Alaska glaciers and their contribution to rising sea level. Science 297, 382–386 (2002).
54
Abdalati W., et al., Elevation changes of ice caps in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. J. Geophys. Res. 109 (F4), 4007 (2004).
55
Nuth C., Moholdt G., Kohler J., Hagen J. O., Kääb A., Svalbard glacier elevation changes and contribution to sea level rise. J. Geophys. Res. 115 (F1), 1008 (2010).
56
Fretwell P., Pritchard H. D., Vaughan D. G., Bamber J. L., Barrand N. E., Bell R., Bianchi C., Bingham R. G., Blankenship D. D., Casassa G., Catania G., Callens D., Conway H., Cook A. J., Corr H. F. J., Damaske D., Damm V., Ferraccioli F., Forsberg R., Fujita S., Gim Y., Gogineni P., Griggs J. A., Hindmarsh R. C. A., Holmlund P., Holt J. W., Jacobel R. W., Jenkins A., Jokat W., Jordan T., King E. C., Kohler J., Krabill W., Riger-Kusk M., Langley K. A., Leitchenkov G., Leuschen C., Luyendyk B. P., Matsuoka K., Mouginot J., Nitsche F. O., Nogi Y., Nost O. A., Popov S. V., Rignot E., Rippin D. M., Rivera A., Roberts J., Ross N., Siegert M. J., Smith A. M., Steinhage D., Studinger M., Sun B., Tinto B. K., Welch B. C., Wilson D., Young D. A., Xiangbin C., Zirizzotti A., Bedmap2: Improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica. Cryosphere 7, 375–393 (2013).
57
Gardner A. S., Moholdt G., Cogley J. G., Wouters B., Arendt A. A., Wahr J., Berthier E., Hock R., Pfeffer W. T., Kaser G., Ligtenberg S. R., Bolch T., Sharp M. J., Hagen J. O., van den Broeke M. R., Paul F., A reconciled estimate of glacier contributions to sea level rise: 2003 to 2009. Science 340, 852–857 (2013).
58
Hurkmans R. T. W. L., Bamber J. L., Davis C. H., Joughin I. R., Khvorostovsky K. S., Smith B. S., Schoen N., Time-evolving mass loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet from satellite altimetry. Cryosphere 8, 1725–1740 (2014).
59
Gunter B. C., Didova O., Riva R. E. M., Ligtenberg S. R. M., Lenaerts J. T. M., King M. A., van den Broeke M. R., Urban T., Empirical estimation of present-day Antarctic glacial isostatic adjustment and ice mass change. Cryosphere 8, 743–760 (2014).
60
Ligtenberg S. R. M., Horwath M., van den Broeke M. R., Legrésy B., Quantifying the seasonal “breathing” of the Antarctic ice sheet. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, 23501 (2012).
61
Reijmer C. H., van Meijgaard E., van den Broeke M. R., Evaluation of temperature and wind over Antarctica in a Regional Atmospheric Climate Model using 1 year of automatic weather station data and upper air observations. J. Geophys. Res. 110 (D4), 4103 (2005).
62
Dee D. P., Uppala S. M., Simmons A. J., Berrisford P., Poli P., Kobayashi S., Andrae U., Balmaseda M. A., Balsamo G., Bauer P., Bechtold P., Beljaars A. C. M., van de Berg L., Bidlot J., Bormann N., Delsol C., Dragani R., Fuentes M., Geer A. J., Haimberger L., Healy S. B., Hersbach H., Hólm E. V., Isaksen L., Kållberg P., Köhler M., Matricardi M., McNally A. P., Monge-Sanz B. M., Morcrette J.-J., Park B.-K., Peubey C., de Rosnay P., Tavolato C., Thépaut J.-N., Vitart F., The ERA-Interim reanalysis: Configuration and performance of the data assimilation system. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 137, 553–597 (2011).
63
J. Mitchell et al., Climatic Change (World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, ed. 79, 1966).
64
van den Broeke M., Bamber J., Ettema J., Rignot E., Schrama E., van de Berg W. J., van Meijgaard E., Velicogna I., Wouters B., Partitioning recent Greenland mass loss. Science 326, 984–986 (2009).
65
van Dam T. M., Wahr J. M., Displacements of the Earth’s surface due to atmospheric loading: Effects on gravity and baseline measurements. J. Geophys. Res. 92 (B2), 1281 (1987).
66
Wahr J., Molenaar M., Bryan F., Time variability of the Earth’s gravity field: Hydrological and oceanic effects and their possible detection using GRACE. J. Geophys. Res. 103 (B12), 30205 (1998).
67
Swenson S., Chambers D., Wahr J., Estimating geocenter variations from a combination of GRACE and ocean model output. J. Geophys. Res. 113 (B8), B08410 (2008).
68
Cheng M., Tapley B. D., Variations in the Earth’s oblateness during the past 28 years. J. Geophys. Res. 109 (B9), B09402 (2004).
69
Wahr J., Swenson S., Velicogna I., Accuracy of GRACE mass estimates. Geophys. Res. Lett. 33, L06401 (2006).
70
Wouters B., Chambers D., Schrama E., GRACE observes small-scale mass loss in Greenland. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L20501 (2008).
71
G. A, J. Wahr, S. Zhong. Geophys. J. Int. 192, 557 (2013).
72
Peltier W. R., Global glacial isostasy and the surface of the Ice-Age Earth: The ICE-5G (VM2) Model and GRACE. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 32, 111–149 (2004).
73
Whitehouse P. L., Bentley M. J., Milne G. A., King M. A., Thomas I. D., A new glacial isostatic adjustment model for Antarctica: Calibrated and tested using observations of relative sea-level change and present-day uplift rates. Geophys. J. Int. 190, 1464–1482 (2012).
74
Sasgen I., Konrad H., Ivins E. R., Van den Broeke M. R., Bamber J. L., Martinec Z., Klemann V., Antarctic ice-mass balance 2003 to 2012: Regional reanalysis of GRACE satellite gravimetry measurements with improved estimate of glacial-isostatic adjustment based on GPS uplift rates. Cryosphere 7, 1499–1512 (2013).
75
Ivins E. R., James T. S., Wahr J., O. Schrama E. J., Landerer F. W., Simon K. M., Antarctic contribution to sea level rise observed by GRACE with improved GIA correction. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 118, 3126–3141 (2013).
76
Ray R. D., Luthcke S. B., Tide model errors and GRACE gravimetry: Towards a more realistic assessment. Geophys. J. Int. 167, 1055–1059 (2006).
77
U.S Geological Survey, Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA), U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2007–3116 (U.S Geological Survey, Reston, VA, 2007).
78
Xiaolan W., Jezek C. K., Antarctic ice-sheet balance velocities from merged point and vector data. J. Glaciol. 50, 219–230 (2004).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Science
Volume 348 | Issue 6237
22 May 2015
22 May 2015
Copyright
Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 26 December 2014
Accepted: 28 April 2015
Published in print: 22 May 2015
Acknowledgments
B.W. and J.L.B. jointly conceived the study, interpreted the results, and wrote the article. B.W. processed the GRACE and Cryosat-2 L2 data. A.M.-E. combined the ICESat-Envisat elevation rates and derived the GVIIS front positions. V.H. developed the Cryosat-2 retracker and processed the L1B data. T.F. processed the Envisat data. J.M.v.W., S.R.M.L., and M.R.v.d.B. developed and ran the SMB and firn model. All authors commented on the manuscript. We thank J. Wahr and G. A for their help with the Glacial Isostatic Adjustment correction and elastic loading. G. Moholdt and A. Gardner are acknowledged for the fruitful discussions on altimetry. B.W. is funded by a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IOF-301260). J.L.B. and A.M.-E. were supported by Natural Environment Research Council grant NE/I027401/1. J.L.B., B.W., and A.M-E. also acknowledge support through European Space Agency contract 4000107393/12/I-NB, “REGINA.” V.H. was supported by the German Ministry of Economics and Technology (grant 50EE1331). J.M.v.W., S.R.M.L., and M.R.v.d.B. acknowledge support from the Netherlands Polar Program of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, section Earth and Life Sciences (NWO/ALW/NPP). The data sets used in this study can be found at http://pangaea.de.
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Article Usage
Altmetrics
Citations
Export citation
Select the format you want to export the citation of this publication.
View Options
Get Access
Log in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
- Become a AAAS Member
- Activate your Account
- Purchase Access to Other Journals in the Science Family
- Account Help
Log in via OpenAthens.
Log in via Shibboleth.
More options
Register for free to read this article
As a service to the community, this article is available for free. Login or register for free to read this article.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.
View options
PDF format
Download this article as a PDF file
Download PDF