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Impacts of the Larsen-C Ice Shelf calving event

Nature Climate Change volume 7, pages 540–542 (2017)Cite this article

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A giant iceberg has calved off the Larsen-C Ice Shelf, the largest remaining ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula, reducing its total area by ~10%. Whilst calving events are a natural phenomenon and thus not necessarily indicative of changing environmental conditions, such events can impact ice-shelf stability.

Over the past two decades floating ice shelves, which fringe 74% of Antarctica's coastline, have retreated1,2, thinned3 and suffered catastrophic collapse4. On the Antarctic Peninsula, ice-shelf retreat has been observed throughout the satellite era (18% over 50 years; ref. 2), and large sections of the Larsen-A (ref. 4), Larsen-B (ref. 5), and the Wilkins1 ice-shelf collapsed in a matter of days in 1995, 2002, and 2008, respectively. Geological evidence suggests that ice-shelf decay of this magnitude is not unprecedented, however, prior to 2002 the Larsen-B ice shelf remained intact for the last 11,000 years (ref. 6). While Antarctic ice shelves are in direct contact with both the atmosphere and the surrounding oceans, and thus subject to changes in environmental conditions, they also go through repeated internally-driven cycles of growth and collapse. A calving event is therefore not necessarily due to changes in environmental conditions, and may simply reflect the natural growth and decay cycle of an ice shelf.

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Figure 1: Schematic showing the processes affecting ice-shelf stability.
Figure 2: The timing of crack growth on the Larsen-C ice shelf.

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Acknowledgements

This work was led by an independent research fellowship (no. 4000112797/15/I-SBo) jointly funded by the European Space Agency, the University of Leeds, and the British Antarctic Survey, with the support of the NERC Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling from grant cpom30001. The authors gratefully acknowledge the ESA and the European Commission Copernicus programme for the use of Sentinel-1 data.

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  1. Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Anna E. Hogg

  2. British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK

    G. Hilmar Gudmundsson

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  1. Anna E. Hogg
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  2. G. Hilmar Gudmundsson
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Correspondence to Anna E. Hogg.

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Hogg, A., Gudmundsson, G. Impacts of the Larsen-C Ice Shelf calving event. Nature Clim Change 7, 540–542 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3359

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