Surprising discovery about Svalbard’s largest glacier
A new study has revealed the main reason why the giant glacier is retreating.
A new study by scientists at the Norwegian Polar Institute has shown that warm ocean water is the main reason why the largest glacier on the Svalbard archipelago, Bråsvellbreen (Austfonna), is melting.
Previously, the warming of the atmosphere was thought to have a major effect on melting.
The fact that the glacier front is instead being melted by ocean water highlights the importantce of ocean warming and its impact on the environment.
“It was a surprising discovery”, marine scientist Øyvind Foss said.
As the researchers point out, high rates of glacier melt have been recorded even in October and November – the time of year when days on Svalbard are dark and temperatures drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius. So even when it’s cold outside, the warm water still causes the glaciers to melt.
“The warm ocean retains energy better than the atmosphere. That’s something we’ve found – that the ocean can stay warm well into autumn, cause melting and calving of glacier fronts,” glaciologist Geir Moholdt told the Barents Observer. “We should be concerned about this because glacier mass loss happens all over the world, especially in Arctic regions like Svalbard, the Canadian Arctic, and Alaska. All these glaciers together, excluding the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, contribute to 20% of the current sea level change”.
To conduct the study, the Polar Institute researchers kept a special device under water for about 4 years to measure ocean currents and temperatures at different depths. Other data came from the weather stations on Svalbard, which monitor air temperature, snow depth, wind and radiation.
The third source of information was satellite imagery, which showed that the glacier was losing ice to the sea at a rapid rate compared to previous years.
According to researchers, the situation with global warming on Svalbard is a vicious circle in which one process exacerbates the other.
“The Barents Sea is warming faster because there is less sea ice than before. Sea ice reflects a lot of solar radiation. When the sea ice disappears, the ocean is darker. So it absorbs more solar light,” Moholdt told the Barents Observer, adding that inflow of warm Atlantic water also contributes to the increased warming of the waters around Svalbard.
Over half of Svalbard is now covered by glaciers, and many have thinned by tens of meters and retreated several kilometres into the sea:
“The glaciers on Svalbard have lost as much as 5% of their mass over the last two decades,” glaciologist Geir Moholdt told the Barents Observer.
As sea levels rise, some cities in Asia, for example, are becoming increasingly vulnerable.
BO: What can we, ordinary people, do in our daily lives to improve the situation?
“We can reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly CO2 and methane,” says Geir Moholdt.
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