ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2023
Melt rates in the kilometer-size grounding zone of Petermann Glacier, Greenland, before and during a retreat.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 59 citations in OpenAlex.
- Petermann Glacier on the brink: Progress, challenges and insights.Science advances · 2026Review
- Contrasting melt regime in the Ice Grounding Zone of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Enhanced subglacial discharge amplifies Petermann Ice Shelf melting when ocean thermal forcing saturates.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Earth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future.PNAS nexus · 2024Review
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
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Abstract
Warming of the ocean waters surrounding Greenland plays a major role in driving glacier retreat and the contribution of glaciers to sea level rise. The melt rate at the junction of the ocean with grounded ice-or grounding line-is, however, not well known. Here, we employ a time series of satellite radar interferometry data from the German TanDEM-X mission, the Italian COSMO-SkyMed constellation, and the Finnish ICEYE constellation to document the grounding line migration and basal melt rates of Petermann Glacier, a major marine-based glacier of Northwest Greenland. We find that the grounding line migrates at tidal frequencies over a kilometer-wide (2 to 6 km) grounding zone, which is one order of magnitude larger than expected for grounding lines on a rigid bed. The highest ice shelf melt rates are recorded within the grounding zone with values from 60 ± 13 to 80 ± 15 m/y along laterally confined channels. As the grounding line retreated by 3.8 km in 2016 to 2022, it carved a cavity about 204 m in height where melt rates increased from 40 ± 11 m/y in 2016 to 2019 to 60 ± 15 m/y in 2020 to 2021. In 2022, the cavity remained open during the entire tidal cycle. Such high melt rates concentrated in kilometer-wide grounding zones contrast with the traditional plume model of grounding line melt which predicts zero melt. High rates of simulated basal melting in grounded glacier ice in numerical models will increase the glacier sensitivity to ocean warming and potentially double projections of sea level rise.
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