A new study published this week in Nature Geoscience reveals that in response to climate change, the Greenland Ice Sheet is developing significantly more surface crevasses in key regions - a change that may accelerate ice loss and contribute to rising sea levels.
The research was led by Thomas Chudley, a research assistant professor at Durham University and former research associate at The Ohio State University's Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. The study analyzed high-resolution 3D surface maps and found that crevasses - wedge-shaped fractures in ice - had significantly increased in size and depth at the ice sheet's fast-flowing edges over the entire Greenland Ice Sheet between 2016 and 2021.
"As crevasses grow, they feed the mechanisms that make the ice sheet's glaciers move faster, driving water and heat to the interior of the ice sheet and accelerating the calving of icebergs into the ocean," said study co-author Ian Howat, director of the Byrd Center and professor of earth sciences at Ohio State.
"These processes can in turn speed up ice flow and lead to the formation of more and deeper crevasses - a domino effect that could drive the loss of ice from Greenland at a faster pace."
The research found that while the overall crevasse volume across the ice sheet changed by only about 4% over the study period, this average conceals dramatic regional differences. In marine-terminating sectors, where glaciers flow directly into the ocean, the crevasse volume increased by up to 25%, particularly in the southeast and central-east regions.
These areas exhibited significant increases in crevassing. In contrast, the central-west sector, notably including Sermeq Kujalleq (Jakobshavn Isbræ), showed a decrease in crevasse volume of about 14%, correlating with a slowdown and thickening of the glacier in that area. However, recent data indicate that Sermeq Kujalleq is beginning to accelerate and thin again.
The analysis demonstrates that crevasse response to dynamic changes occurs much faster than previously recognized, highlighting the advantage of 3D mapping over traditional 2D imagery.
The observed increase in crevassing, especially at low-elevation, marine-terminating outlets, underscores how external forces such as warming oceans and atmosphere can trigger rapid feedback mechanisms in glacial dynamics. These crevasse-driven processes accelerate ice loss by channeling meltwater to the glacier bed and enhancing calving.
The study also provides an essential foundation for improving dynamic models, ensuring that future predictions of ice-sheet behavior better account for the role of crevassing in a warming world.
This collaborative study has provided new insights into how glacier dynamics can respond on sub-decadal timescales, which is essential for forecasting the future impacts of climate change on the world's polar regions.
"The ArcticDEM project will continue to provide high-resolution Digital Elevation Models until at least 2032," Howat said.
"This will allow us to monitor glaciers in Greenland and across the wider Arctic as they continue to respond to climate change in regions experiencing faster rates of warming than anywhere else on Earth."
Additional co-authors were Byrd Center alum Michalea King from the University of Washington and Emma J. MacKie of the University of Florida.
