A Visit to “Ice Age” Greenland by John Van Leer Summer 2010 Ft. Myers presentation 10/29/10 What is happening there? and Why Floridians and other coastal residents around the world should care.

About 21,000 years ago during the last glacial maximum, the large ice sheets of the Northern Hemisphere covered about 30 million square kilometers. Ilulissat, Greenland was near the center. Sea level was about 120m (400’) lower

Recent Findings on Future Sea Level Rise 1) Climate Compact Counties (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe) have agreed on a common sea level forecast for maximums and minimums in the years 2030 from 3” to 7”, 2060 from 9” to 24” and in the year 2100 Miami-Dade Climate Change Task force Science and Technology Committee projects a minimum rise of 3 feet and the maximum rise of 5 feet for a business as usual carbon dioxide increase.

2) The OECD in 2008, ranked Miami the #1 most vulnerable city with most infrastructure at risk to sea level rise of all the major port cities in the world, both today and in 2070. (Miami is #9 for population at risk in 2070.)

Recent Scientific Finding on Glacial Ice Melt 1) Grace gravitational satellite measurements show 5% increase in rate of total ice loss each year in both Greenland and Antarctica since 2002. 2) Laser Altimeter Measurement from aircraft in Greenland and Antarctica agree with Grace estimates. 3) Precision GPS measurements of rebound of coastal Greenland and Spitsbergen also indicate similar evidence of accelerated ice melt.

Greenland is the last remaining Continental Scale Ice Sheet in the Northern Hemisphere Greenland has a 1.7 million square kilometer ice cap. Ice Dome Summit in East Central Greenland is 3,238 meters (2 miles) high. Ice covers 81% of Greenland’s area. The weight of this ice depresses central Greenland about 800 meters. So central Greenland is below sea level. Ice flows by gravity toward both East and West coasts from the summit entering the Atlantic to the East and Davis Strait to the West. Note: Numerous study sites on Ice Cap

Greenland is an Fascinating Study Site 1) Melting all the ice in Greenland raises sea levels 6-8m globally. 2) Norwegian document from1260, “Kongespejlet” (kings mirror), provided the first description of the inland ice in Greenland. “But as you ask whether the land is free from ice or not, or if it is covered with ice like the sea, then you should know that there is a small part of the land which is free from ice, but the rest is covered by it.” 3) Louis Agassiz, (Swiss) first proposed that the earth had been subject to a past ice age In 1837 and wrote a book on glaciers 1840. 4) Hinrich Rink studied the edges of Greenland’s Inland Ice from 1845 to 1850. He started the longest record of past glacial positions (Jakobshavn Glacier) begun in 1850 and continues to the present. 5) The Greenland ice cap was first crossed by Fridtjof Nansen in 1888 to prove it was continuous from east to west and established Ice Cap summit, on his route was 2,719m above sea level. This achievement was received with great scientific interest and acclaim. 6) Nansen’s team overwintered with the Inuit in Nuuk and learned Inuit methods of survival including the use of dog sledges & kayaks.

Fridtjof Nansen’s 1888 expedition was the first to cross the Inland Ice.

Remnant sea ice, 1/10 ice cover, in the East Greenland Current seen from 30,000 feet. Few multi-year ice floes remain where Nansen had fought for a month to cross 20km. Twenty-two years ago I had seen this current, with 9/10 ice cover, dominated by heavy multi-year ice.

Three tidal glaciers enter a fjord in eastern Greenland. Note: Color change from white snow covered to light grey exposed bare ice in the lower portion of each ice stream.

Larger view of same three ice streams showing the eastern edge of Greenland’s ice cap and the exposed tips of the mountain range along the east coast of Greenland.

Merging ice streams feed a calving front. Note: Dark lateral moraines form where each moving glacier scrapes the side of its valley. They then merge to form medial moraines at points where individual streams merge.

Blue lakes, observed from aircraft, form with beginning summer melt, on the West side of Greenland’s Ice Cap between 1150 and 1450 meters above sea level. As global warming continues to raise atmospheric temperatures, melting moves ever higher.

Note: Blue river bend in the upper left partly obscured by clouds. Rivers on the ice cap feed melt water into moulins, which tunnel down to the ice base, to provide lubrication of the base of ice streams. (Melt induced glacial acceleration is known as the Zwally effect.)

Fast Flowing River on the Ice Cap Note: Dirty Ice on right.

Water filled crevasses flanking Jakobshavn ice stream observed during the flight into Ilulisaat. Note: The complete absence of reflective snow cover on the ice and discoloration due to a layer of airborne dust and soot which lead to increased solar absorption and faster melting.

Crevasses relieve bending stress as ice flows down hill into Jakobshavn ice stream toward the calving front where icebergs are formed.

The Jakobshavn Ice Stream in west central Greenland discharged about 50 cubic kilometers of icebergs in 2008, making it the most product glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. It accounts for about 10% of Greenland’s total output. The daily water output (Ice plus melt water) of this single glacier would supply the annual water needs of the entire USA. This aerial photo shows the ice stream calving along a 7 kilometer wide front into its 1,000 meter deep fjord. It moves West at an average speed of 40 meters per day. On July 12th 2010, a 7 square kilometer berg was calved here with the calving front retreating 1.5 km as a result. Jakobshavn ice stream speed is far from steady since it has surged as much as 3 kilometers in only 90 minutes.

Close up of calving front from a helicopter. Note: Shattered ice upstream of the calving face and the matching top of a newly calved large iceberg in the upper left.

Jakobshavn glacier force feeds calving front. Note heavy crevassing in the ice stream above and the freshly formed icebergs floating in the foreground and total ice cover.

Calving face of smaller Eqi Glacier in West central Greenland which can be approached by ship. Note: Cruise ship for scale and “trimline” mark on bare rock face above showing previous higher ice levels where vegetation had been scrubbed off, in the Eqi Fjord.

Freshly calved “bergy bit” near 100m high calving face. Note: Highly crevassed top of glacial Ice. Eqi Glacier is thought to be grounded at the calving front.

Jakobshavn Glacier calving front shown with a floating ice tongue on the East (right).

Note: Large floating bergs moving westward toward the Ice Bank on the West (left).

Top: About 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Northern Hemisphere Glacial Maximum, the ice bank was formed as a terminal moraine. Bottom: Today, Jakobshavn Glacier has retreated more than 50 km into its fjord.

Ice retreat in Jakobshavn Fjord has been documented from 1850 till present. Note: The 15 km retreat between 2001 & 2004 after warm salty water intrusion in 1997.

Largest Icebergs Strand on the Ice Bank. The Ice Bank was first described in 1719 by a Dutch whaler, Lourens Feykes Haan, “As always filled with Fearfully High Icebergs.”

Large Icebergs, seen from the air, are stuck on the ice bank. Bank confines smaller bergs to the fjord, waiting until larger icebergs either melt or calve enough to clear the clear the bank. Warming in Disco Bugt may speed melting.

Large icebergs stranded on the 200-350m deep bank at the mouth of Jakobshavn Fjord. Above picture was taken from Hotel Arctic north of Ilulissat Greenland, on the other side of town, about 4km away from the ice bank.

Disco Bugt, offshore of Jakobshavn Fjord, had no sea ice last winter (2009-2010) for the first time in human memory. As recently as 10 or 12 years ago, people drove trucks across the sea ice to Disco Island.

1) Holland etal (2008) suggested “Acceleration Jakobshavn Isbrae triggered by warm ocean waters.” (The Jakobshavn effect) 2) This follows a sudden increase in subsurface ocean temperature in 1997 along the entire west coast of Greenland, and suggests that changes in Jakobshavn Isbrae are due to the arrival of relatively warm water originating from the Irminger Sea near Iceland.

3) Lack of sea ice in Disko Bugt last winter, may relate to a continuation of this same warming trend.

Between 1998 and 2002, a 15km floating ice tongue disintegrated. The Jakobshavn Glacier thinned 100 meters and accelerated from 20m/day to 40 m/day, one of the fastest flowing glaciers in the world.

In 1998, Ice was buttressed on promontory on south side of fjord but by 2008, it had retreated eastward to flow faster.

Airborne Radar shows the deep channel followed by Jakobshavn Icebrae, deepening from 1,000 meters near the calving front to 1,500 meters 50 km under the inland ice.

Inland Ice follows channel in bedrock forming a rapid ice stream.

The “Matterhorn” at midnight, taller than a 50 story building. Big bergs stay stuck on the Ice Bank for years until they calve or melt enough to clear the bank.

This berg has rolled over creating a tsunami danger. Note: Melted smooth parts were originally underwater and rough parts above water. Previous waterlines were etched before rolling over.

Large icebergs like this are calved when large floating tongues of ice break off. Note: The Jakobshavn calving front is thought to be grounded, with large bergs being produced a few times each summer. Today’s biggest icebergs are about half of their previous maximum size according to creditable long time residents.

This massive berg has been stranded long enough that drainage channels from summer melting are clearly seen and deep cut water line has been melted.

Fresh ice fragments combine with melt water from the grinding of the icebergs on the Ice bank. Note: The front between the fresher melt water with ice fragments and saltier water offshore in Disco Bugt.

Warm Salty water accelerates melting at calving front, on the bottom on the ice bank and within the fjord.

Ice cave may be an old moulin, formed when this ice berg was part of the ice cap well inland.

Heavily crevassed iceberg aground on Ice bank could calve at any time.

Wave cut tunnel in end of grounded iceberg. Note: water lines for high & low tides.

Open water on north side of Jakobshvn Fjord, maintained by outward bound melt water flow.

Open water extends into cove where the ancient Inuit settlement of Sermermiut (which in Inuit means “place of the glacier people”) existed, from about 2,400 BC. Note: Glacial ice choked Jakobshavn Fjord beyond the rock promontory.

Tsunami warning sign on beach, alerts visitors of danger from calving or rolling icebergs. Calving bergs sounds like very large artillery. Consistent open water within this biologically productive fjord has made this prime real estate through out the millennia. This small beach is fed by one of the streams of fresh water in the summer melting season.

Site of Sermermiut includes all three major Inuit periods of settlement. Twin beaches for kayak launching fed by twin streams and gently sloping well drained land, minimized mosquito problems. A number of rectangular depressions mark winter sod house sites from recent past.

Fjord is jam packed solid with glacial ice of all sizes held back by ice bank to the west and force fed by the Jakobshavn Ice stream 50 km to the east. It would be practically impossible measure the fjord waters by ship.

The only practical way to get to the Jakobhvn calving front is by helicopter. Expendable Instruments (XCTDs) to measure the temperature and salinity profiles of fjord waters have been dropped from a hovering helicopter, but at significant expense.

At landing site. Note: the rock/dirt on ice in the background gouged out along the edge of the ice stream by ice, now moving 40 meters per day average speeds. However, surges of 3km in 90 minutes have been recorded.

Remaining 100meter high calving front extends only about 2km on southern side of Jakobshavn Fjord. The remaining 5 km, soon after this picture was taken, calved a new 7 square kilometer Iceberg. Note: Melting has been accelerated in recent years by warm salty Atlantic water invading Greenland’s tide water fjords from below. (Holland etal 2008)

Solar powered time lapse cameras record ice motion feeding calving front and the calving process itself.

Shattered ice, viewed by helicopter, on top of ice stream upstream of calving face.

Massive “Space Shuttle” escaped the Ice bank and grinds north in Disko Bugt leading a procession of smaller icebergs.

Recently calved iceberg in Disko Bugt shows its old (tilting up toward left) and new horizontal waterlines

Settlement Cracks in Youth Hostel wall as permafrost foundation melts with global warming.

View from my house on September 28th, 2008 at 7:30am, 2 hours before high tide. Sea Level Rise & Global Warming are not abstract concepts for some vague future time.

Same picture 10/8/10 @ 9:30am also two hours before high tide with no rain or storm. Salt water came up through street drains. Every year’s fall tides seem higher. I had to drive out on the sidewalk to avoid getting salt water into my car and leave before the water got deeper.

In 1979 Greenland achieved Home Rule but is still part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Ilulissat Icefjord was declared a World Heritage Site in 2004 to be jointly managed by the Home Rule Government and the town of Ilulisaat.

World Heritage Site Boundary (red line)

Ilulissat Town Seal Like all other places in Greenland, Ilulissat has a Greenlandic and a Danish name

Jacob Severin founded the Danish Settlement of Jakobshavn in 1741 near the ancient Inuit village of Sermermiut to trade with the Inuit for seal skins, blubber and whale oil.

Knud Rasmussen Born in Ilulissat in 1879 to a Greenlandic mother and a Danish father was fluent in both languages and was comfortable in both cultures.

Knud became one of the most famous arctic explorers of his day and a great friend the Inuit as well as their foremost cultural anthropologist.

Ilulissat’s Museum was Knud Rasmussen’s birth place

Lutheran Church in Ilulissat with a mixed Inuit and Danish congregation where Knud Rasmussen’s father preached.

Congregation after confirmation

Ilulissat Art Museum in “Company Office.” Note: Cold frames for veggies.

Greenlandic Husky Such dogs can work in -60 degrees C and were bred over at least two thousand years to pull heavily burdened sledges, warn of polar bears and find the way home in blizzard conditions. It is illegal to import other dog breeds above arctic circle.

Traditional dog sledge on top of two newer types. Portable summer house in the background made of seal skins stretched on wood frame.

Knud Rasmussen was inspired by a childhood visit by Fridtjof Nansen, following his successful crossing of Greenland in 1888. Knud studied the Inuit culture on multiple Thule expeditions to northern Greenland and beyond. The fifth Thule Expedition from 19211924 included a 46,000km sledge journey across Northern Canada, Alaska and Siberia to confirm the clear linkages amongst all the Inuit cultures surrounding the Arctic Ocean. These linkages foreshadowed the panarctic cooperation amongst today’s Inuit, as they grapple with the many consequences of global warming on their ways of living.

Inuit sod and stone house with modern roofing. In old days seal skin roof was removed in summer to air the interior out. Note: Fin whale jaw bone arch. Such jaw bones were used for beams to span a roof. Drift wood was a valued commodity.

Storage racks for the Kayak Club Many Inuit hunters lost their lives in kayaks.

Traditional Inuit kayaks were built to fit each individual hunter and sealed at waist with a water tight skirt. The harpoon was tied to an inflated bladder with a rope, to prevented prey from sinking after being struck. A white sheet, like a small sail, was often used to hide a hunter from his prey. (Paddle along center)

The last major Inuit migration, about the year 1200, was the so called Thule Culture.

These Inuit were “sea people” who have traditionally hunted seals, polar bears and walrus or fished for Greenlandic halibut from the sea ice. They hunted, traveled and traded over long distances using dog sledges in wintertime over the sea ice, and used kayaks/umiaks in summer as their traditional hunting/communal transportation systems.

W A R M E R

W I N T E R S

Oil fired power plant in Ilulissat Note: Tall insulated double flue smoke stack to preheat combustion air. A new hydroelectric power plant is under construction to use the rapidly growing melt water volume.

School with Solar Heating Collector Note: Steep mounting angle.

Greenlandic restaurant grows summer veggies & herbs with 24hr daylight.

Daycare on the rocks

“Hands Across the Sands” protest of gulf oil spill extended into Greenland although beaches were unsafe. Wildcat oil drilling is now occurring nearby on the west side of Disko Island.