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The glaciers of North Greenland are hosting enough ice to raise sea level by 2.1 m, and have long considered to be stable. This part of Greenland is buttressed by the last remaining ice shelves of the ice sheet. Here, we show that since 1978, ice shelves in North Greenland have lost more than 35% of their total volume, three of them collapsing completely. For the floating ice shelves that remain we observe a widespread increase in ice shelf mass losses, that are dominated by enhanced basal melting rates. Between 2000 and 2020, there was a widespread increase in basal melt rates that closely follows a rise in the ocean temperature. These glaciers are showing a direct dynamical response to ice shelf changes with retreating grounding lines and increased ice discharge. These results suggest that, under future projections of ocean thermal forcing, basal melting rates will continue to rise or remain at high level, which may have dramatic consequences for the stability of Greenlandic glaciers. North Greenland ice shelves have lost more than a third of their masses, thinning dramatically from below due to increased ocean temperatures. In response, grounding lines have retreated and the amount of ice discharged into the ocean has increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warming of the ocean waters surrounding Greenland plays a major role in driving glacier retreat and the contribution of glaciers to sea level rise. The melt rate at the junction of the ocean with grounded ice—or grounding line—is, however, not well known. Here, we employ a time series of satellite radar interferometry data from the German TanDEM-X mission, the Italian COSMO-SkyMed constellation, and the Finnish ICEYE constellation to document the grounding line migration and basal melt rates of Petermann Glacier, a major marine-based glacier of Northwest Greenland. We find that the grounding line migrates at tidal frequencies over a kilometer-wide (2 to 6 km) grounding zone, which is one order of magnitude larger than expected for grounding lines on a rigid bed. The highest ice shelf melt rates are recorded within the grounding zone with values from 60 ± 13 to 80 ± 15 m/y along laterally confined channels. As the grounding line retreated by 3.8 km in 2016 to 2022, it carved a cavity about 204 m in height where melt rates increased from 40 ± 11 m/y in 2016 to 2019 to 60 ± 15 m/y in 2020 to 2021. In 2022, the cavity remained open during the entire tidal cycle. Such high melt rates concentrated in kilometer-wide grounding zones contrast with the traditional plume model of grounding line melt which predicts zero melt. High rates of simulated basal melting in grounded glacier ice in numerical models will increase the glacier sensitivity to ocean warming and potentially double projections of sea level rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fastest projected rates of sea level rise appear in models which include "the marine ice cliff instability (MICI)," a hypothesized but mostly unobserved process defined by rapid fracture and wastage of terminal ice cliffs that outpaces viscous relaxation and ice‐shelf formation. Crane Glacier's response to the Larsen B Ice Shelf collapse has been invoked as evidence of MICI in the observational record. Using available remote sensing data, we analyze Crane's retreat, arrest, and regrowth over the last two decades. Much of Crane's terminus retreat occurred in floating, not grounded ice. Retreat accelerated by at least 54% during the 2 years following ice shelf collapse. This is inconsistent with contemporaneous regional forcing that promoted ice shelf growth during this period, but consistent with a geometrically controlled positive feedback. We infer a maximum possible cliff height of 111 m, which according to process models, could enable cliff calving assuming damaged ice. Plain Language Summary: The behavior of Antarctic glaciers will largely determine the pace and magnitude of future sea level rise. But the projections made by ice sheet models are uncertain, in part due to the uncertain response of Antarctica to the future loss of its floating ice shelves. It has been hypothesized that ice shelf breakup could trigger a self‐sustaining mechanism of ice loss whereby ice cliffs collapse under their own weight. This idea is controversial because it has not been unambiguously observed in modern glacier systems. We show that after the loss of its ice shelf, Crane Glacier experienced a 2‐year period of accelerating ice loss. While not an unambiguous validation of the instability hypothesis, what we do observe is consistent with a positive feedback and unforced retreat. Models of ice cliff failure that assume glacier ice has pre‐existing weaknesses are consistent with the behavior we observe at Crane, suggesting that if ice was sufficiently damaged at the Crane terminus, retreat by cliff failure was theoretically possible. Key Points: Retreat of Crane Glacier's terminus after the collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf accelerated between November 2002 and 20046.74 km of the 10.30 km retreat occurred in floating ice, with ice cliff failure possible during retreat assuming damaged iceCrane's retreat into a narrow fjord and sea‐ice growth re‐established buttressing stresses, slowed calving, and reversed terminus retreat [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tidal modulation of ice streams and their adjacent ice shelves is a real‐world experiment to understand ice‐dynamic processes. We observe the dynamics of Priestley Glacier, Antarctica, using Terrestrial Radar Interferometry (TRI) and GNSS. Ocean tides are predominantly diurnal but horizontal GNSS displacements also oscillate semi‐diurnally. The oscillations are strongest in the ice shelf and tidal signatures decay near‐linearly in the TRI data over >10 km upstream of the grounding line. Tidal flexing is observed >6 km upstream of the grounding line including cm‐scale uplift. Tidal grounding line migration is small and <40% of the ice thickness. The frequency doubling of horizontal displacements relative to the ocean tides is consistent with variable ice‐shelf buttressing demonstrated with a visco‐elastic Maxwell model. Taken together, this supports previously hypothesized flexural ice softening in the grounding‐zone through tides and offers new observational constraints for the role of ice rheology in ice‐shelf buttressing. Plain Language Summary: Temperatures in Antarctica's interior are below zero, so that ice continuously accumulates through snowfall. This mass gain is balanced by ice transport from the interior toward the coast. There, floating ice shelves form on the ocean and ice is eventually lost through iceberg calving and ocean induced melting. Small changes in any of these processes impact global ocean circulation and mean sea level. The speed of the ice varies with ocean tides. We use a specialized instrument that detects this variability and tidal flexing area‐wide and every few hours. We find that although low‐ and high‐tide only occur once a day in this area, ice flow is largest twice a day. This can be explained because ice softens when it is flexed by the ocean tides so that it can flow episodically faster. This is important because the deformation of ice shelves determines to an extent the stability of the entire ice sheet. Key Points: Terrestrial radar interferometry and GNSS identify dynamic changes at Priestley Glacier, Antarctica, forced by diurnal ocean tidesHorizontal displacements vary semi‐diurnally, are strongest in the shelf and decay near‐linearly >10 km upstream of the grounding lineGrounding line migration is small and flexural softening in ice‐shelf shear margins can explain the semi‐diurnal ice flow component [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]