Climate at the cliffs: Researchers unravel the evolution of the Greenland ice margin

The imposing ice walls in Greenland continue to baffle scientists. Glacier researchers from the Universities of Graz and Innsbruck have come one step closer to solving the mystery. Photo: University of Graz/Steiner

Vertical ice walls, up to 40 metres high: in "Game of Thrones" they were dramatised as fortifications; during the Cold War, they were studied with great interest. How these imposing walls along Greenland’s 80,000-kilometre-long ice margin formed, how they are evolving, and what impact they have on the climate is not yet fully understood. Researchers from the Universities of Graz and Innsbruck have come one step closer to solving the mystery. The results of their latest study have been published in the journal The Cryosphere.

Part of the Greenland ice sheet ends in steep or overhanging cliffs. “We also find such features in Antarctica, Canada and Tibet, by the way,” explains Jakob Steiner from the Department of Geography and Regional Sciences at the University of Graz. Together with colleagues from Graz and Innsbruck, he has conducted field research not far from the American military base Pituffik in north-west Greenland. The measurements have shown that, whilst these cliffs have become increasingly thinner over recent decades, their extent has remained relatively stable over several years. “At first, we couldn’t quite grasp the processes behind this phenomenon,” reports the scientist. “We suspect that the shape of the edge can tell us something about the health of the ice.” The gradient, he suggests, points to past and future dynamics of the entire frozen mass.

Insights from the air
Using new satellite data, the glaciologists discovered that vertical walls and very steep ramps occur along almost a third of the ice margin across Greenland. “This finding allows us to draw conclusions about the entire island in future based on fieldwork results from Pituffik,” adds Steiner. Despite its vast extent, the processes along the ice margin on land have so far been underrepresented in many studies. “Our findings provide an important additional building block for understanding Arctic warming,” explains glaciologist Rainer Prinz from the Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences at the University of Innsbruck.

As early as the 1950s and 1960s, Danish and American researchers investigated the phenomenon of ice cliffs. The Austrian team believes it can now better predict changes to the ice sheet caused by climate change. These changes have far-reaching implications beyond Greenland itself: the melting of the ice leads to a rise in sea levels, alters the jet stream and thereby influences the European climate. “We can expect an increase in extreme weather events,” summarises Steiner.

Publication:
Steiner, J., Abermann, J., Prinz, R.: The terrestrial ice margin morphology in Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), the Cryosphere Volume 20, issue 3
DOI: 10.5194/tc-20-1797-2026

Dagmar Eklaude

Related news

Hotter high up: researchers prove particularly rapid climate change in the mountains

On average, the climate in the mountains warms up half as fast as in the lowlands. At the same time, precipitation and snow cover are decreasing to a greater extent. This is the conclusion reached by international researchers led by the University of Portsmouth in a recently published paper in the scientific journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. The changes in temperature and humidity cause flooding, landslides and droughts. "The effects on agriculture and forestry are much more serious than for winter tourism," summarises Jakob Steiner from the university's Department of Geography and Regional Sciences, who worked on the study. Probably the biggest problem in the near future - for Styria, among others - will be the increasing drought and the associated risk of forest fires.

Dunkle Wasser: Forscher:innen berechnen Folgen der Erwärmung von Grönlands Seen

Schnee am See reflektiert bis zu 90 Prozent der eintreffenden Sonnenstrahlen, eine offene Wasseroberfläche hingegen lediglich 20 Prozent. Wenn also die winterliche Eisdecke durch die Klimaerwärmung früher schmilzt, erwärmt sich das Wasser stärker, mit weitreichenden Folgen. Die Forschungsgruppe Climate Change in Mountain Regions der Universität Graz hat in Grönland Daten dazu erhoben und zeigt in einer soeben in der Zeitschrift „The Cryosphere“ erschienenen Publikation die wahrscheinlichen Konsequenzen auf.

Raising a Treasure Trove: Austrian Polar researchers re-calculate climate change with historical data

Ice cover and weather conditions in Greenland have a clear impact on the climate in Europe. Jakob Abermann from the Institute of Geography and Regional Sciences at the University of Graz devotes his career to studying the environmental conditions on the largest island in the world. Together with colleagues from the Know Center Graz, and the research institution GEUS, Denmark, he has now gained new insights using historical information from the legendary Alfred Wegener expedition to Greenland. Based on these data and on modern re-evaluation, this work can help understand climate change over a century. The results were published this week in the journal Scientific Reports.

Versteckter Wandel

Jakob Abermann analysiert Veränderungen an Gletscher in Nordgrönland. Der Meteorologe ist auch Mitautor des aktuellen Klimaberichts der Weltwetterorganisation.