Warm proglacial lake temperatures and thermal undercutting enhance rapid retreat of an Arctic glacier

Dye, Adrian; Bryant, Robert; Falcini, Francesca; Mallalieu, Joseph; Dimbleby, Miles; Beckwith, Michael; Rippin, David; Kirchner, Nina

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4471-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4471-2025

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4471-2025

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

Articles | Volume 19, issue 10

Research article

|

10 Oct 2025

Research article |

| 10 Oct 2025

Warm proglacial lake temperatures and thermal undercutting enhance rapid retreat of an Arctic glacier

Adrian Dye, Robert Bryant, Francesca Falcini, Joseph Mallalieu, Miles Dimbleby, Michael Beckwith, David Rippin, and Nina Kirchner

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4471-2025-supplement

Data sets

Kas Glacier Calving Parameters Dye https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17252059

Video supplement

Kaskasapakte Glacier Calving Timelapse 2019 Mallalieu and Dye https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16631366

Short summary

Thermal undercutting of the terminus has enhanced recent rapid retreat of an Arctic glacier. Water temperatures (~4 °C) at the ice front were warmer than previously reported and thermal undercutting was over several metres deep. This triggered phases of high calving activity, playing a substantial role in the rapid retreat of Kaskasapakte Glacier since 2012, with important implications for processes occurring at glacier-water contact points and implications for hydrology and ecology downstream.