Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: Iceberg calving accounts for about half of Antarctic ice-shelf mass loss. We used satellite imagery to analyze annual ice-shelf front changes and major calving events over eight years from austral summers 2014 to 2022 in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. In the first seven years, ice shelves advanced steadily without major calving events, resulting in annual net area gains of 6 - 17 km2 yr-1. This changed dramatically in winter 2021 when drifting iceberg D28 collided into ice shelves Roi Baudoin and Muninisen, triggering calving of icebergs D29 and D30, forming a group of giant icebergs that further drifted, collided and triggered new icebergs calving in a cascading manner. Within a single year, we recorded 17 significant calving events (>1.5 km2) and an ice-shelf area loss of 2749 km2, which will take at least a decade to regain. This self-reinforcing calving process should be considered in projections of future ice-sheet change.
Authors: Joséphine Maton, Jennifer Arthur, Geir Moholdt
Institution: Norwegian Polar Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Awards: G1369314100, G1895223838
OpenAlex ID: W4412976993