Totten Ice Shelf history over the past century interpreted from satellite imagery

Miles, Bertie W. J.; Li, Tian; Bingham, Robert G.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4027-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4027-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4027-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 9

Research article

|

25 Sep 2025

Research article |

| 25 Sep 2025

Totten Ice Shelf history over the past century interpreted from satellite imagery

Bertie W. J. Miles, Tian Li, and Robert G. Bingham

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4027-2025-supplement

Data sets

Grounding line and ice speed tracking vectors for Totten Ice Shelf Bertie Miles et al. https://doi.org/10.7488/ds/7853

MODIS Mosaic of Antarctica 2008-2009 (MOA2009) Image Map, Version 2 T. Haran et al. https://doi.org/10.7265/N5KP8037

MEaSUREs BedMachine Antarctica, Version 3 M. Morlighem https://doi.org/10.5067/FPSU0V1MWUB6

MEaSUREs ITS_LIVE Antarctic Grounded Ice Sheet Elevation Change J. Nilsson et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/L3LSVDZS15ZV

Landsat mosaics of Antarctic Ice Shelves from 1973 and 1989, 1973--1989 Miles and Bingham https://doi.org/10.7488/ds/3810

Short summary

Totten Glacier, East Antarctica's largest mass-loss source, has thinned since at least the 1990s. No sustained acceleration has occurred since 1973, but earlier grounding-line retreat suggests prior loss. A ~20-year gap in surface undulations implies a mid-20th-century warm period that may have triggered ongoing loss. Collapse of a nearby ice shelf supports this. Current ~30-year satellite records are too short to capture full decadal melt-rate variability.