Investigating the transition in ice dynamics from a land- to lake-terminating glacier using a simple glacier dynamics model

Otero, Jaime; Goldberg, Daniel; Nienow, Peter; Wang, Yefan

doi:10.5194/tc-20-6221-2026

Articles | Volume 20, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-6221-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-6221-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 11

Research article

|

02 Nov 2026

Research article |

| 02 Nov 2026

Investigating the transition in ice dynamics from a land- to lake-terminating glacier using a simple glacier dynamics model

Jaime Otero, Daniel Goldberg, Peter Nienow, and Yefan Wang

Data sets

Dataset for five lake-terminating glaciers in Iceland 2008-2020 N. Baurley https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13142806

North Atlantic cooling is slowing down mass loss of Icelandic glaciers B. Noël et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5836476

Dataset: "Investigating the transition in ice dynamics from a land- to lake-terminating glacier using a simple glacier dynamics model" J. Otero et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23335783

Model code and software

ElmerFEM J. Ruokolainen et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19888172

Short summary

As climate change creates new lakes at the front of retreating glaciers, these ice bodies often accelerate and lose mass more quickly. We used a computer model to study this process at an Icelandic glacier. Our results show that thinning ice is the main driver for recent acceleration, with 37 % of the total ice loss resulting from the presence of the lake. These findings imply that as lakes grow globally, glaciers could vanish more rapidly than predicted, enhancing the rate of sea level rise.