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Graham, Alastair G. C., Wåhlin, Anna, Hogan, Kelly A., Nitsche, Frank O., Heywood, Karen J. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9859-0026, Totten, Rebecca L., Smith, James A., Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter, Simkins, Lauren M., Anderson, John B., Wellner, Julia S. and Larter, Robert D.
(2022)
Rapid retreat of Thwaites Glacier in the pre-satellite era.
Nature Geoscience, 15 (9).
706–713.
ISSN 1752-0894
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Abstract
Understanding the recent history of Thwaites Glacier, and the processes controlling its ongoing retreat, is key to projecting Antarctic contributions to future sea-level rise. Of particular concern is how the glacier grounding zone might evolve over coming decades where it is stabilized by sea-floor bathymetric highs. Here we use geophysical data from an autonomous underwater vehicle deployed at the Thwaites Glacier ice front, to document the ocean-floor imprint of past retreat from a sea-bed promontory. We show patterns of back-stepping sedimentary ridges formed daily by a mechanism of tidal lifting and settling at the grounding line at a time when Thwaites Glacier was more advanced than it is today. Over a duration of 5.5 months, Thwaites grounding zone retreated at a rate of >2.1 km per year—twice the rate observed by satellite at the fastest retreating part of the grounding zone between 2011 and 2019. Our results suggest that sustained pulses of rapid retreat have occurred at Thwaites Glacier in the past two centuries. Similar rapid retreat pulses are likely to occur in the near future when the grounding zone migrates back off stabilizing high points on the sea floor.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Funding information: This work was supported by grants NE/S006206/1 (A.G.), NE/S006641/1 (R.D.L., C.-D.H., J.A.S. and K.A.H.), and NE/S006419/1 (K.J.H.) from the Natural Environment Research Council, by grant 1738942 (J.S.W., F.O.N., R.L.T., L.M.S. and J.B.A.) from NSF, Office of Polar Programs, and by grant 2017-04257 (A.W.) from Vetenskapsrådet, as well as funding from the SSF project SMARC (A.W.). ITGC Contribution No. ITGC-079. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | earth and planetary sciences(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Sep 2022 10:30 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Mar 2023 11:34 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/88023 |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41561-022-01019-9 |
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