Abstract
Abstract. Past glacier fluctuations provide insight into glacier dynamics, climate change, and the contribution of glaciers to sea-level rise. Here, the length fluctuations since the 19th century of 18 local glaciers in West and South Greenland are presented, extending and updating the study by Weidick (1968). The studied glaciers all showed an overall retreat with an average of 1.2 ± 0.2 km over the 20th century, indicating a general rise of the equilibrium line along the west coast of Greenland during the last century. Furthermore, the average rate of retreat was largest in the first half of the 20th century.
Highlights
Glacier length fluctuations are an indication of climate change as glaciers react with geometric adaptation to changes in climatic forcing (e.g. Oerlemans, 2001)
Length fluctuations provide indirect evidence of changes in glacier mass balance, which is especially relevant near the margin of the Greenland ice sheet where long-term direct measurements of mass balance are scarce
The number of long-term glacier length records was very limited for the local glaciers on Greenland, i.e. glaciers not connected to the ice sheet
Summary
Glacier length fluctuations are an indication of climate change as glaciers react with geometric adaptation to changes in climatic forcing (e.g. Oerlemans, 2001). By combining the observations of early investigators with aerial photography and own field observations, Weidick (1968) reconstructed the length fluctuations of over 80 local glaciers and 60 outlet glaciers of the ice sheet in south and West Greenland, between 60◦ and 72◦ N. Several of these records start in the middle or early 19th century, but they all end in the middle of the 20th century. Leclercq et al.: Glacier length changes in West Greenland present, all glaciers terminate on land, but seven glaciers were tidewater glaciers until the end of the 19th century or the beginning of the 20th century (Weidick, 1968)
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