Ice loss in Greenland’s mountain glaciers

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The weather station installed as part of the LOGS project. Credits Renato R. Colucci

A recent study published in the Journal of Glaciology has revealed that the mountain glaciers along Greenland's west coast are shrinking significantly. This research was conducted by the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council (CNR-Isp) in collaboration with Ca' Foscari University of Venice, the Universities of Freiburg (Switzerland) and Copenhagen (Denmark), as well as the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS).

The research examined over 4,000 glaciers in West Greenland from 1985 to 2020, emphasising that the reduction in size and mass shows a rapid decline in glaciers across the coastal mountain ranges.

“When discussing Greenland, it’s common to first think of its massive ice sheet. However, outside of this ice sheet, there are thousands of mountain glaciers that resemble Alpine glaciers, as well as smaller ice sheets,” explains Andrea Securo, a PhD student in polar sciences at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the lead author of the research. “Although these glaciers have been less studied and observed, there are over 20,000 of them, covering an area that is 70 times larger than that of the Alpine glaciers. This makes Greenland one of the principal contributors to sea-level rise due to glacial melting, second only to Alaska.”

The study used satellite data from the ESA Sentinel Hub to measure volume loss using photogrammetric methods by overlaying sets of close-up satellite images.

Left: the region of Greenland where the study was carried out. Right: the same glacier area surveyed in 1985 and 2020.

"The results we have analysed indicate a nearly 15% reduction in the overall area and approximately 19% decrease in the volume of ice compared to the conditions in 1985," explains Renato R. Colucci, a researcher at CNR-Isp who led the research team.

“Another fascinating piece of information concerns the glacial equilibrium line altitude (ELA), which indicates the altitude at which a glacier can form. During the period examined, satellite data revealed that this line has risen by an average of more than 150 meters, resulting in the disappearance of 279 glaciers. However, in the northernmost part of the area, the rise of the ELA exceeded 250 meters.”

Mountain glaciers, when monitored at least every ten years, serve as crucial indicators for evaluating the relationship between climate change and the cryosphere, i.e. the Earth's ice regions. This study was conducted as part of the Local Glaciers Sisimiut (LOGS) project, which is funded by the Greenland Research Council.