Rapid expansion of Greenland’s low-permeability ice slabs

M. MacFerrin (), H. Machguth, D. van As, C. Charalampidis, C. M. Stevens, A. Heilig, B. Vandecrux, P. L. Langen, R. Mottram, X. Fettweis, M. R. van den Broeke, W. T. Pfeffer, M. S. Moussavi and W. Abdalati
Additional contact information
M. MacFerrin: University of Colorado
H. Machguth: University of Fribourg
D. van As: Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
C. Charalampidis: Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
C. M. Stevens: University of Washington
A. Heilig: WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF
B. Vandecrux: Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
P. L. Langen: Danish Meteorological Institute
R. Mottram: Danish Meteorological Institute
X. Fettweis: University of Liège
M. R. van den Broeke: Utrecht University
W. T. Pfeffer: University of Colorado
M. S. Moussavi: University of Colorado
W. Abdalati: University of Colorado

Nature, 2019, vol. 573, issue 7774, 403-407

Abstract: Abstract In recent decades, meltwater runoff has accelerated to become the dominant mechanism for mass loss in the Greenland ice sheet1–3. In Greenland’s high-elevation interior, porous snow and firn accumulate; these can absorb surface meltwater and inhibit runoff4, but this buffering effect is limited if enough water refreezes near the surface to restrict percolation5,6. However, the influence of refreezing on runoff from Greenland remains largely unquantified. Here we use firn cores, radar observations and regional climate models to show that recent increases in meltwater have resulted in the formation of metres-thick, low-permeability ‘ice slabs’ that have expanded the Greenland ice sheet’s total runoff area by 26 ± 3 per cent since 2001. Although runoff from the top of ice slabs has added less than one millimetre to global sea-level rise so far, this contribution will grow substantially as ice slabs expand inland in a warming climate. Runoff over ice slabs is set to contribute 7 to 33 millimetres and 17 to 74 millimetres to global sea-level rise by 2100 under moderate- and high-emissions scenarios, respectively—approximately double the estimated runoff from Greenland’s high-elevation interior, as predicted by surface mass balance models without ice slabs. Ice slabs will have an important role in enhancing surface meltwater feedback processes, fundamentally altering the ice sheet’s present and future hydrology.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1550-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:573:y:2019:i:7774:d:10.1038_s41586-019-1550-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1550-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().