[1] We have developed an automatic method to identify changes in the position of calving glacier margins using daily MODIS imagery. Application of the method to 32 oceanterminating glaciers in East Greenland produced 26,802 margin positions for a 10 year long period (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009). We report these high-resolution data and show that the glaciers exhibit seasonal cycles with magnitudes of advance and retreat proportional to glacier width. Despite similar seasonality there is a distinct difference between the interannual trends of calving front positions north and south of 69°N. All glaciers above this latitude showed very limited or no change when seasonality was excluded, while glaciers south of 69°N retreated significantly between 2001 and 2005 (∼2.3 km on average). Approximately 26% of the retreat of southern glaciers was regained by readvance from 2005 to 2009. To explain the latitudinal boundary of glacier dynamics, we review basic climatic factors, including summer and winter atmospheric forcing, sea ice conditions, and ocean temperature. We conclude that the southern retreats were strongly influenced by warm oceanic conditions associated with increased transport of subtropical waters to the Irminger Sea and to fjords and coastal regions south of 69°N. Northern glaciers remained stable despite significant increase in runoff in this region because fjords at latitudes higher than 69°N are less exposed to subtropical waters. The southern retreats illustrate sensitive behavior of calving glaciers, and we hypothesize that the calving fronts retreated because they were exposed to rapid ice-front melting.

Hydrographic data acquired in Kangerlugssuaq Fjord and adjacent seas in 1993 and 2004 are used together with ocean reanalysis to elucidate water mass change and ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions in East Greenland. The hydrographic data show substantial warming of fjord waters between 1993 and 2004 and warm subsurface conditions coincide with the rapid retreat of Kangerlugssuaq Glacier in 2004–2005. The ocean reanalysis shows that the warm properties of fjord waters in 2004 are related to a major peak in oceanic shoreward heat flux into a cross-shelf trough on the outer continental shelf. The heat flux into this trough varies according to seasonal exchanges with the atmosphere as well as from deep seasonal intrusions of subtropical waters. Both mechanisms contribute to high (low) shoreward heat flux when winds from the northeast are weak (strong). The combined effect of surface heating and inflow of subtropical waters is seen in the hydrographic data, which were collected after periods when along-shore coastal winds from the north were strong (1993) and weak (2004). We show that coastal winds vary according to the pressure gradient defined by a semi-permanent atmospheric pressure system over Greenland and a persistent atmospheric low situated near Iceland. The magnitude of this pressure gradient is controlled by longitudinal variability in the position of the Icelandic Low

Turbid meltwater plumes and ice-proximal fans occur where subglacial streams reach the grounded marine margins of modern and ancient tidewater glaciers. However, the spacing and temporal stability of these subglacial channels is poorly understood. This has significant implications for understanding the geometry and distribution of Quaternary and ancient ice-proximal fans that can form important aquifers and hydrocarbon reservoirs. Remote-sensing and numerical-modelling techniques are applied to the 200 km long marine margin of a Svalbard ice cap, Austfonna, to quantify turbid meltwater-plume distribution and predict its temporal stability. Results are combined with observations from geophysical data close to the modern ice front to refine existing depositional models for ice-proximal fans. Plumes are spaced ca 3 km apart and their distribution along the ice front is stable over decades. Numerical modelling also predicts the drainage pattern and meltwater discharge beneath the ice cap; modelled water-routing patterns are in reasonable agreement with satellite-mapped plume locations. However, glacial retreat of several kilometres over the past 40 years has limited build-up of significant iceproximal fans. A single fan and moraine ridge is noted from marine-geophysical surveys. Closer to the ice front there are smaller recessional moraines and polygonal sediment lobes but no identifiable fans. Schematic models of iceproximal deposits represent varying glacier-terminus stability: (i) stable terminus where meltwater sedimentation produces an ice-proximal fan; (ii) quasistable terminus, where glacier readvance pushes or thrusts up ice-proximal deposits into a morainal bank; and (iii) retreating terminus, with short stillstands, allowing only small sediment lobes to build up at melt-stream portals. These modern investigations are complemented with outcrop and subsurface observations and numerical modelling of an ancient, Ordovician glacial system. Thick turbidite successions and large fans in the Late Ordovician suggest either high-magnitude events or sustained high discharge, consistent with a relatively mild palaeo-glacial setting for the former North African ice sheet.