A Closer Look at the Humboldt Glacier
05.05.2009 - Ice & Snow, Other, Arctic
Alain Hubert and Larry Lunt, a member of NRDC's Global Leadership Council, have been trekking some 200 miles from the town of Qaanaaq across Greenland's Humboldt glacier. This provides the perfect opportunity to have a closer look at this unique glacier.
Also known by its Inuit name, Sermersuaq Glacier, the Humboldt Galcier is the widest tidewater glacier (a glacier that begins on land but terminates in water) in the Northern Hemisphere. Located in northwestern Greenland, it stretches about 90 km across the Kane Basin in the Nares Strait.
According to an article published in Science in 2006 by Eric Rignot and Pannir Kanagaratnam, the Humboldt has a drainage area of 47,370 km2, meaning it drains about 3% of the entire Greenland ice sheet (1.71 million km2). The output ice flux measured in 1996 and in 2000 was 5.6 km3/yr. Like many other Arctic glaciers, Humboldt glacier is losing ice mass, although nothing close to the rate at which glaciers further south are losing mass. The authors indicate that in 2000 the glacier was losing 1.3 km3/yr. In comparison, in the same year nearby Peterman Glacier was losing 0.7 km3/yr while Jakobshavn Glacier further south was losing 12,5 km3/yr.
Research by the Byrd Polar Research Center indicates a cumulative area decrease of about 90 km2 between 2002 and 2008. Using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite, scientists have also analyzed the retreat of Humboldt glacier between August 2000 and August 2008. The satellite images show that little change has been observed over this period on the southern part of the glacier terminus, but that significant retreat has been visible in the northern part of the terminus, where a fast flowing ice stream is located.
