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Rapid, buoyancy-driven ice-sheet retreat of hundreds of metres per day

Nature volume 617, pages 105–110 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Rates of ice-sheet grounding-line retreat can be quantified from the spacing of corrugation ridges on deglaciated regions of the seafloor1,2, providing a long-term context for the approximately 50-year satellite record of ice-sheet change3,4,5. However, the few existing examples of these landforms are restricted to small areas of the seafloor, limiting our understanding of future rates of grounding-line retreat and, hence, sea-level rise. Here we use bathymetric data to map more than 7,600 corrugation ridges across 30,000 km2 of the mid-Norwegian shelf. The spacing of the ridges shows that pulses of rapid grounding-line retreat, at rates ranging from 55 to 610 m day−1, occurred across low-gradient (±1°) ice-sheet beds during the last deglaciation. These values far exceed all previously reported rates of grounding-line retreat across the satellite3,4,6,7 and marine-geological1,2 records. The highest retreat rates were measured across the flattest areas of the former bed, suggesting that near-instantaneous ice-sheet ungrounding and retreat can occur where the grounding line approaches full buoyancy. Hydrostatic principles show that pulses of similarly rapid grounding-line retreat could occur across low-gradient Antarctic ice-sheet beds even under present-day climatic forcing. Ultimately, our results highlight the often-overlooked vulnerability of flat-bedded areas of ice sheets to pulses of extremely rapid, buoyancy-driven retreat.

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Fig. 1: Corrugation ridges on the mid-Norwegian margin.
Fig. 2: Corrugation ridge dimensions and spacing.
Fig. 3: Schematic model of corrugation ridge formation along the ice-sheet grounding line.
Fig. 4: Time-variable grounding-zone anatomy and links to corrugation ridge formation.
Fig. 5: Hydrostatic relationship between grounding-line retreat and equivalent ice-shelf thinning.

Data availability

The corrugation ridge data generated in this study  have been deposited in the Cambridge Apollo database under accession code https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.93638 (ref. 101). Bathymetric data from the Norwegian margin can be accessed through the Kartverket (The Norwegian Mapping Authority) online database (www.kartverket.no).

Code availability

The code used to produce Fig. 5 was developed in MATLAB and is freely available at the GitHub page of F.D.W.C. at https://github.com/frazer-christie/Batchelor_etal_2023_Nature.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Kartverket (The Norwegian Mapping Authority; www.kartverket.no) for access to bathymetric data from the mid-Norwegian margin (including data acquired through the MAREANO programme (www.mareano.no), which are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license). We also thank the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) for financial support and V. Bellec (NGU) for the processing of bathymetric datasets. This work was funded by the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty Research Fund, Newcastle University (to C.L.B.) and a Junior Research Fellowship, Peterhouse College, University of Cambridge (to A.M.). This document was also produced with the financial assistance (to F.D.W.C. and J.A.D.) of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Christine L. Batchelor

  2. Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Frazer D. W. Christie, Aleksandr Montelli, Evelyn K. Dowdeswell & Julian A. Dowdeswell

  3. Geological Survey of Norway, Trondheim, Norway

    Dag Ottesen & Lilja R. Bjarnadóttir

  4. Geography and Environment, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Jeffrey Evans

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C.L.B. devised the project and analysed the marine-geophysical data. F.D.W.C. performed the hydrostatic calculations and produced Fig. 5. C.L.B. wrote the paper with input from F.D.W.C., and each coauthor contributed comments and suggestions during several iterations of the text and figures.

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Correspondence to Christine L. Batchelor.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 Distribution of the 7,678 corrugation ridges mapped in this study.

Detailed bathymetric data: ©Kartverket. Background bathymetry is Olex single-beam echo-sounder data (grid cell size 50 m)45. Shelf break, seaward limit of exposed bedrock and GZW locations are from Ottesen et al.22. Geographical boundaries from European Environment Agency46. EDF, Extended Data Figure. Inset shows the grounded margin of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet in Norway following the Last Glacial Maximum, based on the reconstruction of Sejrup et al.20, which incorporates available empirical age constraints (white circles). Maps produced using ESRI ArcMap.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Location of the 443 ridge-perpendicular transects measured in this study.

Detailed bathymetric data: ©Kartverket. The letters for each dataset correspond to those in Extended Data Table 1. Background bathymetry is Olex single-beam echo-sounder data (grid cell size 50 m)45. Shelf break, seaward limit of exposed bedrock and GZW locations are from Ottesen et al.22. Geographical boundaries from European Environment Agency46. Map produced using ESRI ArcMap.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Examples of corrugation ridges on the mid-Norwegian margin.

a, Corrugation ridges (CRs) in outer Trænadjupet (location in Extended Data Fig. 1). Detailed bathymetric data: ©Kartverket. Inset shows interpretation of landforms. b,c, Profiles across the CRs in a. d, CRs in inner Sklinnadjupet (location in Extended Data Fig. 1). Detailed bathymetric data: ©Kartverket. Inset shows interpretation of landforms. e,f, Profiles within and across the seafloor incisions in d. Grid cell size 5 m. Maps produced using ESRI ArcMap.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Examples of corrugation ridges overprinting MSGLs and GZWs.

a, Corrugation ridges in inner Sklinnadjupet (location in Extended Data Fig. 1). Detailed bathymetric data: ©Kartverket. Inset shows interpretation of landforms. b,c, Profiles across some of the corrugation ridges in a. d, Corrugation ridges in inner Sklinnadjupet (location in Extended Data Fig. 1). Detailed bathymetric data: ©Kartverket. Inset shows interpretation of landforms. e,f, Profiles across some of the corrugation ridges in d. Grid cell size 5 m. Maps produced using ESRI ArcMap.

Extended Data Fig. 5 The morphology of corrugation ridges within and beyond seafloor incisions.

a, Corrugation ridge amplitude and spacing, coloured by whether they are found within or beyond seafloor incisions (Methods). b, Corrugation ridge spacing and seafloor gradient, coloured by whether they are found within or beyond seafloor incisions. c, Map showing the distribution of corrugation ridges within and beyond seafloor incisions. Detailed bathymetric data: ©Kartverket. Background bathymetry is Olex single-beam echo-sounder data (grid cell size 50 m)45. Shelf break, seaward limit of exposed bedrock and GZW locations are from Ottesen et al.22. Geographical boundaries from European Environment Agency46. Map produced using ESRI ArcMap.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Examples of other types of subdued ridges on glaciated margins.

a, Recessional moraines on Haltenbanken, mid-Norwegian margin. b, Crevasse-squeeze ridges (CSRs) in Sklinnadjupet, mid-Norwegian margin. c, Sand waves in the Barents Sea. d, Tidal push ridges within iceberg ploughmarks in outer Trænadjupet, mid-Norwegian margin. Detailed bathymetric data: ©Kartverket. Data in all panels gridded with cell size 5 m. Maps produced using ESRI ArcMap.

Extended Data Fig. 7 The number of corrugation ridges measured in each transect.

a, Histogram showing the number of consecutive along-flow corrugation ridges measured in each long-profile transect. b, Example of one of the longest corrugation ridge transects in the study area (location in c). Detailed bathymetric data: ©Kartverket. Grid cell size 5 m. c, Map showing the distribution of transect lengths across the mid-Norwegian margin. Detailed bathymetric data: ©Kartverket. Background bathymetry is Olex single-beam echo-sounder data (grid cell size 50 m)45. Shelf break, seaward limit of exposed bedrock and GZW locations are from Ottesen et al.22. Geographical boundaries from European Environment Agency46. Map produced using ESRI ArcMap.

Extended Data Table 1 Acquisition details for the multibeam echo-sounder data used in this study
Full size table
Extended Data Table 2 Rates of grounding-line retreat and ice-shelf thinning, as presented in and/or inferred from marine-geological and satellite-based studies
Full size table

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Batchelor, C.L., Christie, F.D.W., Ottesen, D. et al. Rapid, buoyancy-driven ice-sheet retreat of hundreds of metres per day. Nature 617, 105–110 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05876-1

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