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Author Topic: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland  (Read 94808 times)

Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #100 on: April 07, 2016, 06:21:50 PM »
A large claving session happened at Helheim Gletscher between March 26 and April 7 2016
Notice the large tabular "cubes":

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Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #101 on: May 22, 2016, 09:42:20 PM »
Calving action at Helheim Gletscher:
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Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #102 on: May 24, 2016, 07:12:24 PM »
The latest calving seen from above:
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solartim27

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #103 on: June 24, 2016, 08:58:39 PM »
Pretty good size calving recently, but flipping back through the images, it looks mostly like a conveyor belt.
http://glacierresearch.com/locations/helheim/realtime-images-terminus.html
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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #104 on: July 28, 2016, 07:20:13 AM »
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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #105 on: January 07, 2017, 02:00:55 PM »
Helheim Gletscher update:

Large calving observed at Helheim between December 29 2016 and January 4 2017.
At the same time we are into record retreat terratory.

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DrTskoul

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #106 on: January 07, 2017, 02:18:27 PM »
How does the location of the terminus compares to past summer and previous years ?

Thanks for the update Espen.

Tor Bejnar

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #107 on: January 07, 2017, 05:38:00 PM »
Where would we be without Espen?  I'm repeatedly grateful for you presence on these threads.

This calving broke up any consolidation/freezing-together of the debris (ice melange) floating in the fjord, so there isn't much winter left to form much of a buttress.  Given how active this glacier is, though, I'm not sure any buttress has been much of a deterrent to calving.  (From what I've read elsewhere, there appears to be different opinions as to how effective sea ice buttressing is for Greenland's glaciers.)
Arctic ice is healthy for children and other living things because "we cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice"

Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #108 on: June 16, 2017, 10:27:49 PM »
Helheim Gletscher update:

As you can see in the animation below, Helheim Gletscher is calving and retreating into new record lows:
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Gary H

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #109 on: July 28, 2017, 02:23:57 AM »
Here's an interesting look (from 2008, I believe) at a bit more history here.  A good bit of advance and retreat since 1933. If I'm seeing the picture here correctly, the June 15th terminus appears quite similar to that in 2005.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2017, 04:53:01 PM by Gary H »

ghoti

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oren

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #111 on: July 29, 2017, 12:57:13 AM »
Thanks for the link ghoti, that is quite a video.

Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #112 on: August 19, 2017, 09:33:11 AM »
Heavy calving activity at Helheim Gletscher, and the glacier is now in a record retreat mode:
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Gary H

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #113 on: August 20, 2017, 05:35:41 PM »
As I noted above - curious that the terminus is back top approx where it was in 2005.

oren

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #114 on: August 20, 2017, 09:15:14 PM »
As I noted above - curious that the terminus is back top approx where it was in 2005.
Thanks for that image. My eyes tell me that the glacier has now retreated beyond the 2005 line.

Gary H

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #115 on: August 21, 2017, 01:15:57 AM »
Perhaps - perhaps not. Insignificant, in any event.  Study the other dates, on the graphic, for more eye work.

Besides - generally speaking, why would not one expect that the general trend would be downward, during  hundreds of years of GW? One knows that in the 350-450 yrs preceding that, the general trend was going the other way.

crandles

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #116 on: August 21, 2017, 12:34:37 PM »
why would not one expect that the general trend would be downward, during  hundreds of years of GW? One knows that in the 350-450 yrs preceding that, the general trend was going the other way.

So why are you not expecting the trend to be downward ie thinner glacier and thinner glacier meaning less friction resistance so that the glacier can advance further until a point when it gets too thin and then starts an unstable retreat?

Gary H

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #117 on: August 21, 2017, 02:30:27 PM »
I'd expect, that in start's and stops (as for the past century) I'd expect pretty much that to be the case, as long as GT's remain at the current level. Don't really need any additional GW, as we're warmer now than 150-200 yrs ago.  Not to sure what the 'unstable' implies -- Earth's climate doesn't invite long term stability; never has.

solartim27

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #118 on: July 09, 2018, 05:01:19 PM »
Large calving video from Jun 22
Live Science: Dramatic Video Captures Moment Towering Iceberg Splits from Greenland Glacier.
https://www.livescience.com/63008-greenland-glacier-births-iceberg-video.html
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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #119 on: July 09, 2018, 08:10:51 PM »
Large calving video from Jun 22
Live Science: Dramatic Video Captures Moment Towering Iceberg Splits from Greenland Glacier.
https://www.livescience.com/63008-greenland-glacier-births-iceberg-video.html

Nice.

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #121 on: July 14, 2018, 05:28:32 PM »
Two nice videos in this Twitter thread
Simon Gascoin (@sgascoin) Tweeted:
Summer holiday activity: solving the Helheim iceberg puzzle from #Sentinel2 time lapse
More  by @themadstone @StefLhermitte here :  https://t.co/C7k5c0OaC8  #Greenland @CopernicusEU https://t.co/XLWY22fiZ5 https://twitter.com/sgascoin/status/1018140626628562944?s=17
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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #122 on: July 15, 2018, 10:08:14 AM »
Helheim Gletscher update:

As you can see in the animation below, Helheim Gletscher is calving and retreating into new record lows:

It appears that the absolute record was in 2006.

https://twitter.com/sgascoin/status/1018140626628562944/photo/1

oren

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #123 on: July 15, 2018, 10:27:06 AM »
That twitter animation is too quick and too low-red to properly assess, but I believe Espen's animation above shows record retreat on August 17th 2017, which seems to be a bit further than the 2006 retreat.

solartim27

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #124 on: October 07, 2018, 08:35:02 PM »
happened to have a break in the clouds, and looked out the window at just the right time to see the Helheim area on a recent trip.  I like to think the engine is consuming the ice.
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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #125 on: August 15, 2019, 11:14:01 AM »
Not only Helheim Gletscher is in record retreat mode but all glaciers in the entire area surrounding this great glacier are in the same sad condition, especially Franche-Comté Gletscher (which wrongly is also called Midgårdsgletscher at least until they were seperated), and to name a few others Fernisgletscher, Glacier de France, Knud Rasmussen Gletscher.
Notice the accumulation zone is almost gone in this animation:
« Last Edit: August 16, 2019, 10:40:25 AM by Espen »
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Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #126 on: August 18, 2019, 06:19:47 PM »
A massive calving happened over the last 24 hours at Helheim Gletscher the action including a new record (satelite) retreat:
« Last Edit: August 18, 2019, 08:27:52 PM by Espen »
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NotaDenier

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #127 on: August 19, 2019, 07:23:38 PM »

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #128 on: October 02, 2019, 10:30:53 AM »
This post could fit on many threads since it is directly related to ice collapse, but since the results are for Helheim, i post here.
There was a paper earlier this year by Parizek and many of the usual suspects:  doi: 10.1130/G45880.1

on the mechanics of calving at Helheim. It is a very good depiction of what actually happens: first there is a slump on the freeboard section, followed by a "falling upward" rotation of the submarine section that is no longer weighted down by the freeboard. I attach fig DR2 from the supplementary but i strongly recommend the whole paper. I shudder to think of this happening on Thwaites.

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Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #129 on: October 10, 2019, 12:31:48 PM »
Helheim Gletscher not far away from record satellite retreat (August 17 2017), some would say overall record but not depthwise?
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NotaDenier

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #130 on: October 12, 2019, 01:22:57 AM »
Is helheim the most studied glacier in Greenland?
Great article.
https://vis.sciencemag.org/greenlands-dying-ice/

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #131 on: January 08, 2020, 08:58:43 PM »
A poster at the AGU conference in December by Sierra Melton, Richard B Alley, et al.
Quote
Iceberg Calving and Meltwater Plumes at Helheim Glacier, Visualized in High-Resolution Satellite Imagery

Abstract

Ice-cliff failure through calving of large icebergs may cause rapid retreat of outlet glaciers and destabilization of inland ice sheets. An improved understanding of calving mechanisms at ice cliffs is of critical importance to better constrain ice-sheet models and sea-level projections.

Helheim Glacier, a tidewater glacier on Greenland’s eastern coast, terminates in a ~100-m-tall ice cliff with an ice-mélange choked fjord in front. Icebergs calved at Helheim are primarily non-tabular bergs which, if extending the entire terminus thickness, generate globally-detectable glacial earthquakes during calving. Some wider tabular icebergs, which remain floating upright, also calve without producing such large glacial earthquakes.

An additional process occurring at Helheim’s calving front involves surface meltwater pooling and the appearance of meltwater-plume-fed polynyas in the mélange. The timing and locations of polynyas, subglacial drainage, calving behavior, and glacial earthquake occurrence are all associated processes that influence Helheim’s grounding state, yet limited observational data focusing on the linkages between these processes exists.

Here we utilize high-resolution DigitalGlobe optical imagery to observe temporal variability in iceberg morphology and meltwater features and compare these observations with the glacial earthquake record. Meltwater features often appear in consistent positions, suggesting that fjord geometry and the resulting glacier topography have a controlling influence on their spatial persistence. Surface pooling appears more extreme when no polynya is present, so these features are likely linked. Non-tabular iceberg calving and associated glacial earthquakes can occur even when no polynya is present, yet polynya appearance suggests a channelized subglacial drainage system and hence indicates a grounded or near-grounded front.

These targeted observations will inform more generalized modeling of ice-cliff retreat, as Helheim’s terminus behavior may serve as an analogue to processes at the future glacial margins of Antarctica after removal of ice shelves by warming ocean waters. Unstable ice cliffs could cause retreat into the deep Antarctic basins containing vast volumes of ice with the potential to contribute several meters to global sea level.

Two frames from the poster are displayed here as png.
« Last Edit: January 08, 2020, 09:38:52 PM by pietkuip »

Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #132 on: August 27, 2020, 09:05:51 PM »
I had this large format print made today, probably one of the most photogenic places in Greenland:
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kassy

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #133 on: August 28, 2020, 04:02:04 PM »
That´s some really dark colour on the bottom of the picture.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #134 on: August 28, 2020, 07:49:14 PM »
That´s some really dark colour on the bottom of the picture.

???
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Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #135 on: November 17, 2020, 10:34:14 AM »
The Helheim Gletscher Complex during the modern satellite era - 1972 - 2020.
Besides all the retreating glaciers in this animation (try to pick one that is not rereating).
You also see the massive retreat of snow cover in the end of both years melting season.

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #136 on: November 17, 2020, 12:37:27 PM »
Espen,

Thanks for bringing these crisp pictures to the forefront of our imagination. They document very well what we are losing at the moment.

Just a minor language thing. It is not the glaciers, which are retreating. It is the retreating glacier fronts, which are of concern. Unless we tidy up our description of the real world out there, how on earth should journalists and policy-makers be able to tell the difference.

Glaciers move forward/downhill all the time, thus they never retreat. Glacier fronts retreat.



Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #137 on: November 17, 2020, 12:48:20 PM »
Espen,

Thanks for bringing these crisp pictures to the forefront of our imagination. They document very well what we are losing at the moment.

Just a minor language thing. It is not the glaciers, which are retreating. It is the retreating glacier fronts, which are of concern. Unless we tidy up our description of the real world out there, how on earth should journalists and policy-makers be able to tell the difference.

Glaciers move forward/downhill all the time, thus they never retreat. Glacier fronts retreat.


You are rigth to some degree, I also think thinning is in the retreat category?
Especially the landbased glaciers when they are only there to melt away?
« Last Edit: November 17, 2020, 01:05:51 PM by Espen »
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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #138 on: November 17, 2020, 01:34:55 PM »
In that case, I would use the word 'shrink' as in this article: https://www.voanews.com/science-health/global-warming-shrinking-glaciers-faster-thought

So, most often satellite images will reveal ice front retreats and ground-based surveys will document shrinking glacier surfaces.

Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #139 on: November 17, 2020, 02:06:38 PM »
Espen,

how on earth should journalists and policy-makers be able to tell the difference.


That is good question. I have had many moments explaining both groups the difference between a 5 % increase and 5 % percentage point increase, they talk / write about percentage all the time but they  don't seem to understand the difference?
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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #140 on: November 17, 2020, 02:09:29 PM »
That isn't just less snow. That appears to be dramatically shrinking ice caps as well.

Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #141 on: December 30, 2020, 10:40:35 AM »
Helheim Gletscher: A large calving session happened between December 23 and December 29 2020.

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #142 on: April 12, 2021, 11:12:27 PM »
Here is just a spring pre heater before the action later:

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Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #143 on: August 02, 2021, 10:53:10 PM »
Fenrisgletscher Separation from an unnamed co-glacier the separation proces is shown from the very first Landsat 1 (1972) followed by Landsat 8 (2013) and Sentinel 2 (2021).

I am aware the name Fenrisgletscher is misspelled in the title of this thread, but so is it in most official Danish maps where it is spelled Fernisgletscher?
Fenris (Fenrir) the mighty wolf of Norse mythology.

Please click on image to enlarge and animate!
« Last Edit: August 02, 2021, 11:26:24 PM by Espen »
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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #144 on: December 13, 2021, 05:26:11 PM »
A really good article on Helheim, Fenris & Midgard Glaciers (SE Greenland).
Yet another indicator of the accelerating impact of Global Warming.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021GL094546
Helheim Glacier Poised for Dramatic Retreat

Abstract
Helheim Glacier, one of the largest marine-terminating outlet glaciers draining the Greenland Ice Sheet, underwent significant retreat and acceleration in the early 2000s, accounting for an appreciable proportion of the ice sheet's mass loss during that period. Using a range of remotely sensed datasets, we show that despite a subsequent readvance, the glacier has continued to lose mass and thin, and has retreated inland of the retracted position occupied in 2005. Critically, the near-terminus is up to 100 m thinner than during 2005, and the front 5 km is within 25–50 m of flotation, with retrograde bed slopes extending several kilometers inland of the terminus. The neighboring Fenris and Midgard Glaciers have both undergone recent large-scale and rapid retreat once their near-terminus regions began to float, suggesting that under projected climate warming and associated glacier thinning, Helheim Glacier is poised to pass a threshold whereby the near-terminus region will retreat rapidly.

Plain Language Summary
A significant proportion of the Greenland Ice Sheet's contribution to global sea-level rise is as a result of mass loss from its marine-terminating glaciers. Helheim Glacier, located in southeast Greenland, is one of the largest and fastest-flowing glaciers draining the Greenland Ice Sheet. During the early 2000s, Helheim Glacier underwent dramatic retreat and acceleration, but subsequently readvanced during relatively cooler conditions in 2006. However, persistently high ocean and atmospheric temperatures have meant that Helheim Glacier has in fact been continuously losing mass since 2003, despite this readvance. Here, we use a range of remotely sensed data to show that since 2014, Helheim Glacier has accelerated and retreated to a greater extent than occurred in 2003–2005. More importantly, as the glacier has been losing mass over the past two decades, it is currently much thinner than during its peak retreat in 2005. As the glacier continues to lose mass, it will pass a threshold whereby the ice will float and rapidly disintegrate. We observe that this process has already occurred at the glaciers neighboring Helheim Glacier, which are subject to the same climate forcing and thus provide an analogue for the future response of Helheim Glacier to continued warming.

Conclusion
We have shown that Helheim Glacier has recently retreated and accelerated to an extent similar to that observed during its well-studied dynamic change in the early 2000s. Critically, however, the near-terminus region is up to 100 m thinner than during its previous maximum retreat in 2005, such that the terminus within ∼5 km of the ice front is within up to 50 m of flotation. Thinning and retreat have been driven by a persistent negative mass balance since 2003 as a result of anomalously warm atmospheric and oceanic temperatures which have shown a sustained increase since 1980. Although temporary readvance is possible, with further oceanic and atmospheric warming we expect that Helheim Glacier will continue to thin and lose mass, eventually passing a threshold whereby the near-terminus region floats and rapidly accelerates and retreats. Such a retreat would be the most extensive within the observational record, exceeding that which occurred in the 1930s and the early 2000s. Moreover, Holocene records (Bjørk et al., 2018) indicate that after a similar retreat occurred beginning between 10.5 and 9.6 ka, Helheim Glacier remained retreated until 0.3 ka despite several cold events, suggesting that readvance would be difficult. As such, we argue Helheim Glacier is poised for a rapid retreat that may represent a tipping point into a new dynamic state.
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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #145 on: December 13, 2021, 05:41:24 PM »
Fenrisgletscher Separation from an unnamed co-glacier the separation proces is shown from the very first Landsat 1 (1972) followed by Landsat 8 (2013) and Sentinel 2 (2021).

I am aware the name Fenrisgletscher is misspelled in the title of this thread, but so is it in most official Danish maps where it is spelled Fernisgletscher?
Fenris (Fenrir) the mighty wolf of Norse mythology.

Please click on image to enlarge and animate!

Look at how the ice caps in the mountains have shrunk or disappeared in that animation.

Jim Hunt

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #146 on: December 13, 2021, 06:34:34 PM »
A really good article...

Not least because it signals your welcome return.

Have a very Merry Xmas Gero!
"The most revolutionary thing one can do always is to proclaim loudly what is happening" - Rosa Luxemburg

Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #147 on: December 13, 2021, 07:16:08 PM »
"A really good article on Helheim, Fenris & Midgard Glaciers (SE Greenland).
Yet another indicator of the accelerating impact of Global Warming".


I dont agree, it is another (of many) high jacked stories written by some so called "scientists".
It is an old story allready, I reported about the separation at the Fenris Gletscher in August 2021, and several times about the retreat and thinning of Helheim Gletscher?
Second there is no such thing called Midgård Nord Gletscher, but the scientific name is Franche Comté Gletscher so much for science, this time?
Have a ice day!

Espen

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #148 on: December 13, 2021, 07:29:27 PM »
I will go so far to state that Midgårdgletscher never retreated that much compared to Franche-Comté Gletscher as can be clearly watched in this animation, Franche-Comté Gletscher is and was the big contributor:
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=553.0;attach=292036;image

https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,553.msg293532.html#msg293532

« Last Edit: December 13, 2021, 07:40:32 PM by Espen »
Have a ice day!

OffTheGrid

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Re: Helheim Gletscher / Fernisgletscher / South East Greenland
« Reply #149 on: December 21, 2021, 10:51:47 AM »
What's going on up the back?