scholarly journals Threefold increase in marine-terminating outlet glacier retreat rates across the Atlantic Arctic: 1992–2010

2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (74) ◽  
pp. 72-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Rachel Carr ◽  
Chris. R. Stokes ◽  
Andreas Vieli
Keyword(s):  
Barents Sea ◽  
Glacier Retreat ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
Position Change ◽  
Outlet Glacier ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Franz Josef Land ◽  
North Atlantic Climate

ABSTRACTAccelerated discharge through marine-terminating outlet glaciers has been a key component of the rapid mass loss from Arctic glaciers since the 1990s. However, glacier retreat and its climatic controls have not been assessed at the pan-Arctic scale. Consequently, the spatial and temporal variability in the magnitude of retreat, and the possible drivers are uncertain. Here we use remotely sensed data acquired over 273 outlet glaciers, located across the entire Atlantic Arctic (i.e. areas potentially influenced by North Atlantic climate and/or ocean conditions, specifically: Greenland, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land and Svalbard), to demonstrate high-magnitude, accelerating and near-ubiquitous retreat between 1992 and 2010. Overall, mean retreat rates increased by a factor of 3.5 between 1992 and 2000 (−30.5 m a−1) and 2000–10 (−105.8 m a−1), with 97% of the study glaciers retreating during the latter period. The Retreat was greatest in northern, western and south-eastern Greenland and also increased substantially on the Barents Sea coast of Novaya Zemlya. Glacier retreat showed no significant or consistent relationship with summer air temperatures at decadal timescales. The rate of frontal position change showed a significant, but weak, correlation with changes in sea-ice concentrations. We highlight large variations in retreat rates within regions and suggest that fjord topography plays an important role. We conclude that marine-terminating Arctic outlet glaciers show a common response of rapid and accelerating retreat at decadal timescales.

scholarly journals Exceptional retreat of Novaya Zemlya's marine-terminating outlet glaciers between 2000 and 2013

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Rachel Carr ◽  
Heather Bell ◽  
Rebecca Killick ◽  
Tom Holt
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Remotely Sensed ◽  
Glacier Retreat ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
The Past ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Novaya Zemlya (NVZ) has experienced rapid ice loss and accelerated marine-terminating glacier retreat during the past two decades. However, it is unknown whether this retreat is exceptional longer-term and/or whether it has persisted since 2010. Investigating this is vital, as dynamic thinning may contribute substantially to ice loss from NVZ, but is not currently included in sea level rise predictions. Here, we use remotely sensed data to assess controls on NVZ glacier retreat between the 1973/6 and 2015. Glaciers that terminate into lakes or the ocean receded 3.5 times faster than those that terminate on land. Between 2000 and 2013, retreat rates were significantly higher on marine-terminating outlet glaciers than during the previous 27 years, and we observe widespread slow-down in retreat, and even advance, between 2013 and 2015. There were some common patterns in the timing of glacier retreat, but the magnitude varied between individual glaciers. Rapid retreat between 2000–2013 corresponds to a period of significantly warmer air temperatures and reduced sea ice concentrations, and to changes in the NAO and AMO. We need to assess the impact of this accelerated retreat on dynamic ice losses from NVZ, to accurately quantify its future sea level rise contribution.

scholarly journals Exceptional retreat of Novaya Zemlya's marine-terminating outlet glaciers between 2000 and 2013

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 2149-2174 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Rachel Carr ◽  
Heather Bell ◽  
Rebecca Killick ◽  
Tom Holt
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ◽  
Glacier Retreat ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
The North ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
The North Atlantic Oscillation ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Novaya Zemlya (NVZ) has experienced rapid ice loss and accelerated marine-terminating glacier retreat during the past 2 decades. However, it is unknown whether this retreat is exceptional longer term and/or whether it has persisted since 2010. Investigating this is vital, as dynamic thinning may contribute substantially to ice loss from NVZ, but is not currently included in sea level rise predictions. Here, we use remotely sensed data to assess controls on NVZ glacier retreat between 1973/76 and 2015. Glaciers that terminate into lakes or the ocean receded 3.5 times faster than those that terminate on land. Between 2000 and 2013, retreat rates were significantly higher on marine-terminating outlet glaciers than during the previous 27 years, and we observe widespread slowdown in retreat, and even advance, between 2013 and 2015. There were some common patterns in the timing of glacier retreat, but the magnitude varied between individual glaciers. Rapid retreat between 2000 and 2013 corresponds to a period of significantly warmer air temperatures and reduced sea ice concentrations, and to changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). We need to assess the impact of this accelerated retreat on dynamic ice losses from NVZ to accurately quantify its future sea level rise contribution.

scholarly journals Extreme Warming in the Kara Sea and Barents Sea during the Winter Period 2000–16

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (22) ◽  
pp. 8913-8927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svenja H. E. Kohnemann ◽  
Günther Heinemann ◽  
David H. Bromwich ◽  
Oliver Gutjahr
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Kara Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Winter Period ◽  
Limited Area ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽  
Large Variability ◽  
Air Temperatures

The regional climate model COSMO in Climate Limited-Area Mode (COSMO-CLM or CCLM) is used with a high resolution of 15 km for the entire Arctic for all winters 2002/03–2014/15. The simulations show a high spatial and temporal variability of the recent 2-m air temperature increase in the Arctic. The maximum warming occurs north of Novaya Zemlya in the Kara Sea and Barents Sea between March 2003 and 2012 and is responsible for up to a 20°C increase. Land-based observations confirm the increase but do not cover the maximum regions that are located over the ocean and sea ice. Also, the 30-km version of the Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR) is used to verify the CCLM for the overlapping time period 2002/03–2011/12. The differences between CCLM and ASR 2-m air temperatures vary slightly within 1°C for the ocean and sea ice area. Thus, ASR captures the extreme warming as well. The monthly 2-m air temperatures of observations and ERA-Interim data show a large variability for the winters 1979–2016. Nevertheless, the air temperature rise since the beginning of the twenty-first century is up to 8 times higher than in the decades before. The sea ice decrease is identified as the likely reason for the warming. The vertical temperature profiles show that the warming has a maximum near the surface, but a 0.5°C yr−1 increase is found up to 2 km. CCLM, ASR, and also the coarser resolved ERA-Interim data show that February and March are the months with the highest 2-m air temperature increases, averaged over the ocean and sea ice area north of 70°N; for CCLM the warming amounts to an average of almost 5°C for 2002/03–2011/12.

Co, Hf, Ce, Cr, Th, and REE systematics of modern bottom sediments of the Barents sea

2019 ◽  
Vol 485 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-211
Author(s):  
A. V. Maslov ◽  
N. V. Politova ◽  
V. P. Shevchenko ◽  
N. V. Kozina ◽  
A. N. Novigatsk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bottom Sediments ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Western Coast ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
The North ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
Franz Josef Land ◽  
Pechora River ◽  
Marine Areas ◽  
Bottom Grab

The Co, Hf, Ce, Cr, Th, and REE systematics are analyzed for modern sediments collected by a bottom grab during the 67th and 68th cruises of R/V “Akademik Mstislav Keldysh” and samples taken in the Barents Sea bays and inlets. Our results indicate that most modern bottom sediments are composed of fine silicoclastic material enhanced with a suspended matter of the North Cape current, which erodes the western coast of Scandinavia, and due to bottom erosion of some marine areas, as well as erosion of rock complexes of the Kola Peninsula, Novaya Zemlya, and Franz Josef Land (local provenances). Material from Spitsbergen also probably played a certain role. In the southern part of the Barents Sea, clastic material is supplied by the Pechora River.

Late Weichselian ice-sheet flow directions in the Russian northern Barents Sea from high-resolution imagery of submarine glacial landforms

Geology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian A. Dowdeswell ◽  
Aleksandr Montelli ◽  
Grigorii Akhmanov ◽  
Marina Solovyeva ◽  
Yana Terekhina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Barents Sea ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
Franz Josef Land ◽  
High Resolution Imagery ◽  
Anna Trough ◽  
Flow Convergence ◽  
Late Weichselian ◽  
Glacial Landforms

The locations and orientations of more than 1000 late Quaternary subglacial and ice-marginal landforms, including streamlined sedimentary bed forms, glacitectonic hill-hole pairs, meltwater channels, and eskers, were mapped from blocks of multibeam data (area of 4861 km2) in the little-known Russian Barents Sea. Between Sentralbanken and Admiralty Bank, at ~75°N, there is evidence for southward ice flow. Ice-flow indicators between Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya show northeast flow into the head of St. Anna Trough. There is also evidence of southeast flow off the bank to the south of Franz Josef Land, and of flow convergence with northeast-flowing ice in Sedov Trough. Northeast flow of ice between Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land suggests that the latter archipelago was not overrun by ice flowing north from the Barents Sea and, therefore, that a subsidiary ice dome was likely on Franz Josef Land. A major ice divide was also present at ~76°N –77°N in the Russian Barents Sea.

Rare and trace elements in modern bottom sediments of the Barents sea. Nd, Pb and Sr isotopic composition

2021 ◽  
pp. 444-472
Author(s):  
A.V. Maslov ◽  
◽  
N.V. Politova ◽  
N.V. Kozina ◽  
A.B. Kuznetzov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bottom Sediments ◽  
Surface Sediments ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
The North ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
Franz Josef Land ◽  
Central Regions ◽  
Moderate Positive Correlation

The article presents a brief lithological description of the modern bottom sediments of the Barents Sea, selected in the 67th voyage of the R/V “Akademik Mstislav Keldysh” at the polygons: 1) “Pechora Sea”; 2) “Western slope of Kaninskoe shoal”; 3) “Central Barents Sea (Shtokman area)”; 4) “Russkaya Gavan’ fjord”; 5) “Medvezhinsky Trench”; 6) in the area to the south of Spitsbergen; 7) “Kola meridian”; 8) “Spitsbergen – Franz Josef Land archipelago”; 9) “Cambridge Strait”. The distribution of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb in samples of bottom sediments (pelitic, aleurite-pelitic and sandy-aleuritic-pelitic ooze) is compared with the background concentrations and contents of these elements in the Post-Archean Average Shale (PAAS). The data obtained are consistent with the notion that the distribution of heavy metals and other elements in the bottom sediments is controlled primarily by the global geochemical background. The relationship of the Sc, V, Cr, Ni, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Hf, Th, U and rare-earth elements concentrations with content of fine pelite (< 0.001 mm) fraction and organic carbon (Corg) is considered. It was found that most of these elements are characterized by a moderate positive correlation with the amount of fine pelite fraction in samples. By the magnitude of the correlation coefficient with the Corg content, all elements are attributed into three groups: (1) with moderate positive correlation, (2) weak positive correlation, (3) practically not pronounced correlation. The distribution in the bottom sediments of the Barents Sea of the element-indicators of the source rocks composition (Sc, Th, Co, Cr, La and Sm), as well as of rare earths, make it possible to consider that the majority of bottom sediments is mature in geochemical terms material, the sources of which were rocks of the Kola Peninsula and Spitsbergen (?). The bottom sediments of the Cambridge Strait are represented by geochemically less mature material, which, apparently, entered the sea as a result of erosion of the Franz Josef Land archipelago rocks. The established isotopic characteristics (εNd, 207Pb/206Pb and 87Sr/86Sr) of 17 samples of surface sediments suggest that the main contribution to the formation of bottom deposits of the central regions of the Barents Sea is made by rocks of the mainland part located in the influence zone of the North Cape Current. Archipelagos and islands (Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, etc.) that frame the Barents Sea supply a relatively small amount of clastic material that is carried by Arctic currents. The values of εNd and 87Sr/86Sr in the surface sediments of the central part of the Barents Sea and in the ice-rafted sediments carried by the Transpolar Drift showed a significant difference. This suggests that the contribution of such material to the formation of surface sediments of the Barents Sea is relatively small

scholarly journals Ice gouging on the arctic shelf of Russia

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 466-468
Author(s):  
S. L. Nikiforov ◽  
R. A. Ananiev ◽  
N. V. Libina ◽  
N. N. Dmitrevskiy ◽  
L. I. Lobkovskii
Keyword(s):  
Deep Water ◽  
Barents Sea ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
Franz Josef Land ◽  
Eastern Shelf ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Perennial Ice

The results of recent geological and geophysical expeditions indicate the activation of hazardous natural phenomena associated with ice gouging and represent geohazard for almost all activities, including operation of the Northern Sea Route. Within the Barents Sea and the western part of the Kara Sea, the modern ice gouging is mainly associated with icebergs which are formed as a result of the destruction of the glaciers of Novaya Zemlya, the Spitsbergen archipelago and Franz Josef Land, while on the eastern shelf it is caused by the destruction of seasonal or perennial ice fields. Fixed furrows can be divided into modern coastal gouges or deep water ploughmarks. All deep water gouges within the periglacial and glacial shelf are of paleogeographical origin, but with different mechanisms of action on the seabed. These furrows were formed by floating ice on the periglacial shelf. On the glacial shelf deep water ploughmarks were formed by large icebergs, which could carry out the gouging even on the continental slope and deep-sea ridges of the Arctic Ocean.

scholarly journals Polychaete genus Pholoe (Polychaeta: Pholoidae) in the north-east region of the Barents Sea

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3-2021) ◽  
pp. 88-97
Author(s):  
K.K. Moskvin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Barents Sea ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Novaya Zemlya Archipelago ◽  
North West ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
East Region ◽  
The Barents Sea ◽  
Franz Josef Land

The paper describes species composition, distribution and biology of the polychaeta genus Pholoe in the north-east region of the Barents Sea (between Franz Josef Land and north-west coast of Novaya Zemlya archipelago). One species of the genu s was identified based on the reviewed morphological descriptions – Pholoe assimilis. The highest values of population density (1130 specimens/m2) and biomass (570 mg/m2) were registered in comparatively warm coastal waters of Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Pholoe assimilis’ population size structure based on the dorsal width of the fifth chaetiger was investigated for the first time. Size-frequency histograms indicate presence of at least four size classes.

scholarly journals Seasonal variations of outlet glacier terminus position in Greenland

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (216) ◽  
pp. 759-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin M. Schild ◽  
Gordon S. Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Variations ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽  
Simple Relationship ◽  
Environmental Forcing ◽  
Outlet Glacier ◽  
Glacier Terminus ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Spatial Differences ◽  
Moderate Resolution ◽  
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

AbstractMany of Greenland’s marine-terminating outlet glaciers have undergone rapid retreat in the past decade, accompanied by accelerated flow and dynamic thinning. Superimposed on this pattern of retreat, these glaciers undergo seasonal variations in terminus position, corresponding roughly to wintertime advance and summertime retreat. We compiled near-daily time series of terminus position for five of Greenland’s largest outlet glaciers (Daugaard Jensen, Kangerdlugssuaq and Helheim glaciers in East Greenland, and Jakobshavn Isbræ and Rink Isbræ in West Greenland) using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery. There are spatial differences in the timing of the onset of seasonal retreat among all the glaciers in our study, as well as variability in terminus behavior for individual glaciers from year to year. We examine whether this spatial and temporal variability is linked to above-freezing air temperatures or high sea surface temperatures, but find no simple relationship. Instead, we hypothesize that terminus geometry (ice thickness, subglacial topography, fjord bathymetry) exerts an important control on the response of marine-terminating glaciers to climate perturbations. Models for predicting outlet glacier response to climate change need to include this complex interaction between geometry and environmental forcing.

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