Work

Damage development on Antarctic ice shelves sensitive to climate warming

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Damage features, such as rifts and crevasses, are the first signs of a weakened ice shelf and the precursor for retreat. Yet, damage changes are not widely quantified on Antarctic ice shelves, leaving future ice shelf weakening poorly understood. Here we use satellite imagery to detect both long-term (24-year) and short-term (annual, 2015–2021) Antarctic-wide damage changes, revealing a multiyear damage development cycle strongly correlated to ice shelf area changes, and a net decline in damaged area from 1997 to 2021. We establish a data-driven link between damage and ice flow characteristics, which shows that ice flow acceleration, strain rate increases and thinning lead to more damage development, in particular under high-emission climate scenarios. This sensitivity to warming suggests that without quantification of damage impacts by detailed physical models the (timing of) ice shelf retreat and Antarctic mass loss may currently be underestimated. Damages such as crevasses or cracks can be early indicators of ice shelf weakening. Here, the authors quantify changes in damage structures in Antarctic ice sheets, which show sensitivity to warming

Source: Nature Climate Change

DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02453-4

Authors: Maaike Izeboud, Bert Wouters, Sophie de Roda Husman, Stef Lhermitte

Institutions: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Delft University of Technology, KU Leuven

Language: English

Topic: Cryospheric studies and observations

Subfield: Atmospheric Science

Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $12,690