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The Greenland Ice Sheet is cracking open more rapidly as it responds to climate change.
Dr Tom Chudley, in our Department of Geography, led a new large-scale study of crevasses – wedge-shaped fractures or cracks – on the world's second largest body of ice.
Researchers studied more than 8,000 3-D surface maps, created using high-resolution satellite imagery.
They found crevasses had significantly increased in size and depth at the fast-flowing edges of the ice sheet over the five years between 2016 and 2021.
This means the increases in crevasses are happening more quickly than previously detected.
Bigger and deeper crevasses
The crevasses are also getting bigger and deeper where ice is flowing more quickly due to warmer air and sea temperatures.
In some areas at the edge of the ice sheet, where it meets the sea, there was a 25 per cent increase in crevasses (with an error margin of plus/minus 10 per cent).
These increases were offset by a reduction in crevasses at the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier, which underwent a temporary slowdown during the study period.
This balanced the total change in crevasses across the entire ice sheet during the study period to plus 4.3 per cent (with an error margin of plus/minus 5.9 per cent).
However, Sermeq Kujalleq's flow speed has begun increasing again – suggesting that the period of balance between crevasse growth and closure on the ice sheet is now over.
Sea level rise
Greenland has been behind approximately 14mm of sea level rise since 1992 and research has shown it could contribute up to 30cm (one foot) to sea level rise by 2100.
On millennial timescales, scientists have warned that consistent temperatures in excess of 2°C above pre-industrial levels result in a much greater risk of 'locking in' as much as 12 to 20 metres of sea level rise from Greenland and Antarctica.
Earlier this year the European Copernicus climate service said that 2024 was the first year when average global temperatures were more than 1.5˚C above the pre-industrial average.
It's hoped the latest Durham-led findings will allow scientists to build the effects of ice damage and crevassing into predictions of the future behaviour of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
