On the role of submarine melting of tidewater glaciers in driving the Greenland ice sheet out of balance (Invited)

The Greenland ice sheet is losing mass and the rate of mass loss has been increasing with time. A recent comparison of the components contributing to the mass balance of the ice sheet suggests that half of the signal is caused by an increase in runoff and half by ice dynamics, i.e. the acceleration of outlet glaciers. The root cause of the glacier acceleration is a de-stabilization of the glacier frontal regions, i.e. an un-grounding of the frontal parts which reduces buttressing and allows faster rates of ice sliding to sea. While the role of surface melt water on the lubrication of the glacier bed has been highly publicized, detailed study of the effect of melt water on glacier flow suggest that it can only account for a moderate acceleration of glaciers. De-stabilization of glaciers from vertical thinning is key, yet the increase in runoff is not large enough to explain the observations. We propose instead that submarine melting of the glacier submerged faces has been the main trigger and control. In August 2008, we collected CTD and current measurements in the front of 4 glaciers, 100 km north of Jakobshavn Isbrae, in West Greenland. Calculation of heat and mass flow reveal submarine melt rates ranging from 1 to 3 meters per day, or 100 times larger than the rates of surface melt. Large variations exist from one glacier to the next, but the results suggest that submarine melting is a large contributor to glacier thinning, capable of explaining glacier un-grounding and de-stabilization. Submarine melting removes from 20% to 90% of the ice that reaches the ocean, the rest being discharged as icebergs. Prior studies totally ignored the role of submarine melting in Greenland and only considered iceberg calving. We conclude than more detailed studies of ice-ocean interactions in tidewater glacier environments are absolutely critical to better understand present-day and future evolutions of the Greenland ice sheet in a warming climate.