Pub Date : 2025-11-07DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01847-5
Xianyu Kong, Oliver J. Lechtenfeld, Jan M. Kaesler, Mats A. Granskog, Colin A. Stedmon, Martin Graeve, Boris P. Koch
Arctic warming is expected to increase the terrestrial dissolved organic carbon flux into the central Arctic Ocean, altering biogeochemical cycling by modulating light attenuation, microbial respiration and carbon dioxide release. Quantifying terrestrial inputs remains challenging due to biases in common proxies and uncertainties in endmember characteristics, which complicate traditional mixing models, introducing uncertainties in predicting climate change impacts. Here we present a high-resolution mass spectrometric approach allowing direct analysis of original seawater, tracing and quantifying terrestrial contributions to dissolved organic carbon. Terrestrial dissolved organic carbon in the central Arctic Ocean contributed at least 0.97 ± 0.05 PgC (16.4%) to the dissolved organic carbon inventory of 5.93 ± 0.09 PgC, including 15.0% in deep water (7.9 ± 0.4 µmol l−1). In surface water within the Transpolar Drift, the average terrestrial dissolved organic carbon concentrations were 117% higher (31.5 ± 4.8 µmol l−1) than outside the Transpolar Drift (14.5 ± 1.0 µmol l−1). The terrestrial dissolved organic matter is compositionally distinct, being more aromatic, hydrophobic and nitrogen-poor than marine sources. This approach provides chemical information that reflects changes in organic matter sources and bioavailability, both of which are central to understanding future climatic impacts on Arctic biogeochemical cycles. Terrestrially derived dissolved organic carbon is pervasive in the Arctic Ocean, especially within the Transpolar Drift current, and changing inputs could impact future marine carbon cycling, according to a dissolved organic carbon inventory.
{"title":"Major terrestrial contribution to the dissolved organic carbon budget in the Arctic Ocean","authors":"Xianyu Kong, Oliver J. Lechtenfeld, Jan M. Kaesler, Mats A. Granskog, Colin A. Stedmon, Martin Graeve, Boris P. Koch","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01847-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01847-5","url":null,"abstract":"Arctic warming is expected to increase the terrestrial dissolved organic carbon flux into the central Arctic Ocean, altering biogeochemical cycling by modulating light attenuation, microbial respiration and carbon dioxide release. Quantifying terrestrial inputs remains challenging due to biases in common proxies and uncertainties in endmember characteristics, which complicate traditional mixing models, introducing uncertainties in predicting climate change impacts. Here we present a high-resolution mass spectrometric approach allowing direct analysis of original seawater, tracing and quantifying terrestrial contributions to dissolved organic carbon. Terrestrial dissolved organic carbon in the central Arctic Ocean contributed at least 0.97 ± 0.05 PgC (16.4%) to the dissolved organic carbon inventory of 5.93 ± 0.09 PgC, including 15.0% in deep water (7.9 ± 0.4 µmol l−1). In surface water within the Transpolar Drift, the average terrestrial dissolved organic carbon concentrations were 117% higher (31.5 ± 4.8 µmol l−1) than outside the Transpolar Drift (14.5 ± 1.0 µmol l−1). The terrestrial dissolved organic matter is compositionally distinct, being more aromatic, hydrophobic and nitrogen-poor than marine sources. This approach provides chemical information that reflects changes in organic matter sources and bioavailability, both of which are central to understanding future climatic impacts on Arctic biogeochemical cycles. Terrestrially derived dissolved organic carbon is pervasive in the Arctic Ocean, especially within the Transpolar Drift current, and changing inputs could impact future marine carbon cycling, according to a dissolved organic carbon inventory.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 1","pages":"90-98"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01847-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145455614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-07DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01830-0
Marta Calvache
The eruption of Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia in November 1985 killed an estimated 25,000 people in the town of Armero. Forty years on, Colombia has transformed its geological risk management in the wake of this disaster, recognizing the importance of institutions, knowledge sharing and engagement with local communities.
{"title":"Volcanic risk management in Colombia 40 years after Armero","authors":"Marta Calvache","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01830-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01830-0","url":null,"abstract":"The eruption of Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia in November 1985 killed an estimated 25,000 people in the town of Armero. Forty years on, Colombia has transformed its geological risk management in the wake of this disaster, recognizing the importance of institutions, knowledge sharing and engagement with local communities.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 11","pages":"1074-1076"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145456897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-07DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01837-7
Stefan Lachowycz
Nature Geoscience spoke with Daniel Andrade (Instituto Geofísico, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Ecuador), Lucia Capra (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico), Kyoko Kataoka (Niigata University, Japan), and Anke Zernack (Massey University, New Zealand) about lahars — volcanic mud and debris flows — and the hazards they pose.
{"title":"Understanding lahars","authors":"Stefan Lachowycz","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01837-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01837-7","url":null,"abstract":"Nature Geoscience spoke with Daniel Andrade (Instituto Geofísico, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Ecuador), Lucia Capra (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico), Kyoko Kataoka (Niigata University, Japan), and Anke Zernack (Massey University, New Zealand) about lahars — volcanic mud and debris flows — and the hazards they pose.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 11","pages":"1088-1090"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145456853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Water on the surface of the Moon is a key factor in tracing lunar surface processes and represents a potential future resource for lunar exploration. Samples from the Apollo and Luna missions provide constraints on the content and possible origin of this water, but represent only low latitudes on the Moon’s nearside. Information about the lunar farside has been restricted to remote sensing observations and thus the global distribution and origin of lunar surface water are still debated. Here we performed laboratory analyses of samples from the lunar farside at mid-latitudes returned by the Chang’e-6 mission. We find that the samples have very low δD values (as low as −983‰) and high water contents (up to 1.7 wt%) in the topmost layers of grains, indicating that solar-wind implantation is the primary source. The water contents are comparable to those reported for Chang’e-5 samples from mid-latitudes on the nearside, but nearly double those of Apollo samples. Infrared reflectance spectra further reveal that the bulk Chang’e-6 samples exhibit stronger OH/H2O features and higher maturity than Chang’e-5 samples, despite both showing similar water content profiles with depth. These findings suggest that the distribution of water on the lunar surface is strongly dependent on latitude, with the bulk water content also depending on regolith maturity. Our findings imply that lunar surface water may be more abundant in highly mature regolith in high-latitude regions. Analyses of Chang’e-6 samples from the lunar farside reveal high water contents and low δD values, with comparisons to other lunar samples suggesting that solar-wind-implanted surface water varies with latitude and regolith maturity.
{"title":"Distribution of lunar surface water dependent on latitude and regolith maturity","authors":"Honglei Lin, Rui Chang, Rui Xu, Wei Yang, Heng-Ci Tian, Hong Tang, Jinning Li, Jialong Hao, Liyu Shan, Xiaojing Zhang, Huaiyu He, Zhiping He, Wei Lin, Yangting Lin, Yong Wei","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01819-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01819-9","url":null,"abstract":"Water on the surface of the Moon is a key factor in tracing lunar surface processes and represents a potential future resource for lunar exploration. Samples from the Apollo and Luna missions provide constraints on the content and possible origin of this water, but represent only low latitudes on the Moon’s nearside. Information about the lunar farside has been restricted to remote sensing observations and thus the global distribution and origin of lunar surface water are still debated. Here we performed laboratory analyses of samples from the lunar farside at mid-latitudes returned by the Chang’e-6 mission. We find that the samples have very low δD values (as low as −983‰) and high water contents (up to 1.7 wt%) in the topmost layers of grains, indicating that solar-wind implantation is the primary source. The water contents are comparable to those reported for Chang’e-5 samples from mid-latitudes on the nearside, but nearly double those of Apollo samples. Infrared reflectance spectra further reveal that the bulk Chang’e-6 samples exhibit stronger OH/H2O features and higher maturity than Chang’e-5 samples, despite both showing similar water content profiles with depth. These findings suggest that the distribution of water on the lunar surface is strongly dependent on latitude, with the bulk water content also depending on regolith maturity. Our findings imply that lunar surface water may be more abundant in highly mature regolith in high-latitude regions. Analyses of Chang’e-6 samples from the lunar farside reveal high water contents and low δD values, with comparisons to other lunar samples suggesting that solar-wind-implanted surface water varies with latitude and regolith maturity.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 11","pages":"1097-1102"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145447683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-05DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01812-2
Jonathan Jung, Nicolas N. Duprey, Alan D. Foreman, Juan Pablo D’Olivo, Carolin Pellio, Yeongjun Ryu, Erin L. Murphy, Baseerat Romshoo, Diego K. Kersting, Gabriel O. Cardoso, Tanja Wald, François Fripiat, Carlos Jimenez, Eberhard Gischler, Paolo Montagna, Carlos Alonso-Hernández, Miguel Gomez-Batista, Christina Treinen-Crespo, José Carriquiry, Maria Rosabelle Ong, Nathalie F. Goodkin, Reia Guppy, Hedy Aardema, Hans Slagter, Lena Heins, Isabella Hrabe de Angelis, Aaron L. Bieler, Maayan Yehudai, Trevor P. Noël, Kendon James, Denis Scholz, Chuanmin Hu, Brian B. Barnes, Andrea Pozzer, Christopher Pöhlker, Jos Lelieveld, Ulrich Pöschl, Hubert Vonhof, Gerald H. Haug, Ralf Schiebel, Daniel M. Sigman, Alfredo Martínez-García
The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt first appeared in 2011 and quickly became the largest interconnected floating biome on Earth. In recent years, Sargassum stranding events have caused substantial ecological and socio-economic impacts in coastal communities. Sargassum requires both phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) for growth, yet the primary sources of these nutrients fuelling the extensive Sargassum blooms remain unclear. Here we use coral-bound N isotopes to reconstruct N2 fixation, the ultimate source of the ocean’s bioavailable N, across the Caribbean over the past 120 years. Our data indicate that changes in N2 fixation were primarily controlled by multidecadal and interannual changes in equatorial Atlantic upwelling of ‘excess P’, that is, P in stoichiometric excess relative to fixed N. We show that the supply of excess P from equatorial upwelling and N from the N2 fixation response can account for the majority of Sargassum variability since 2011. Sargassum dynamics are best explained by their symbiosis with N2-fixing epiphytes, which render the macroalgae highly competitive during strong equatorial upwelling of excess P. Thus, the future of Sargassum in the tropical Atlantic will depend on how global warming affects equatorial Atlantic upwelling and the climatic modes that control it. High near-surface nitrogen-fixation rates that promoted the recent growth of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt were tied to greater upwelling of phosphorus from the equatorial Atlantic, according to coral-bound nitrogen isotope records from the Caribbean.
{"title":"Equatorial upwelling of phosphorus drives Atlantic N2 fixation and Sargassum blooms","authors":"Jonathan Jung, Nicolas N. Duprey, Alan D. Foreman, Juan Pablo D’Olivo, Carolin Pellio, Yeongjun Ryu, Erin L. Murphy, Baseerat Romshoo, Diego K. Kersting, Gabriel O. Cardoso, Tanja Wald, François Fripiat, Carlos Jimenez, Eberhard Gischler, Paolo Montagna, Carlos Alonso-Hernández, Miguel Gomez-Batista, Christina Treinen-Crespo, José Carriquiry, Maria Rosabelle Ong, Nathalie F. Goodkin, Reia Guppy, Hedy Aardema, Hans Slagter, Lena Heins, Isabella Hrabe de Angelis, Aaron L. Bieler, Maayan Yehudai, Trevor P. Noël, Kendon James, Denis Scholz, Chuanmin Hu, Brian B. Barnes, Andrea Pozzer, Christopher Pöhlker, Jos Lelieveld, Ulrich Pöschl, Hubert Vonhof, Gerald H. Haug, Ralf Schiebel, Daniel M. Sigman, Alfredo Martínez-García","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01812-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01812-2","url":null,"abstract":"The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt first appeared in 2011 and quickly became the largest interconnected floating biome on Earth. In recent years, Sargassum stranding events have caused substantial ecological and socio-economic impacts in coastal communities. Sargassum requires both phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) for growth, yet the primary sources of these nutrients fuelling the extensive Sargassum blooms remain unclear. Here we use coral-bound N isotopes to reconstruct N2 fixation, the ultimate source of the ocean’s bioavailable N, across the Caribbean over the past 120 years. Our data indicate that changes in N2 fixation were primarily controlled by multidecadal and interannual changes in equatorial Atlantic upwelling of ‘excess P’, that is, P in stoichiometric excess relative to fixed N. We show that the supply of excess P from equatorial upwelling and N from the N2 fixation response can account for the majority of Sargassum variability since 2011. Sargassum dynamics are best explained by their symbiosis with N2-fixing epiphytes, which render the macroalgae highly competitive during strong equatorial upwelling of excess P. Thus, the future of Sargassum in the tropical Atlantic will depend on how global warming affects equatorial Atlantic upwelling and the climatic modes that control it. High near-surface nitrogen-fixation rates that promoted the recent growth of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt were tied to greater upwelling of phosphorus from the equatorial Atlantic, according to coral-bound nitrogen isotope records from the Caribbean.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1259-1265"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01812-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145440916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-05DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01841-x
Max K. Lloyd, Rebekah S. Sprengel, Barbara E. Wortham, Regan E. Dunn, Daniel E. Ibarra, Todd E. Dawson, Daniel A. Stolper
Low atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are thought to suppress land plant productivity in part by promoting photorespiration, wherein illuminated C3 plants uptake molecular oxygen and release carbon dioxide. This could act as a negative feedback that limits atmospheric carbon dioxide decline during glacial periods. However, colder glacial temperatures would suppress photorespiration, potentially counteracting this feedback. Here we tested the hypothesis that land plants photorespired more during glacial periods by applying a proxy for photorespiration rate based on clumped isotope compositions of wood methoxyl groups, validated in modern and recent trees, to North American subfossil tree specimens from the last glacial period. We find that, across most of ice-free North America, trees from the last glacial period photorespired more than more recent trees from similar locations and more than contemporary trees from higher latitudes. We reconcile these differences using a single model relationship between temperature, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and photorespiration, which suggests that, during glacial periods, photorespiration increased primarily in warmer growing environments that cooled by about 6 °C or less. This supports the hypothesis of a negative feedback that regulates atmospheric carbon dioxide by increasing photorespiration and restricting land plant productivity during glacial periods. Low carbon dioxide levels during the last glacial period enhanced photorespiration in trees across North America, indicating a decline in land plant productivity, according to measurements of clumped isotopes in subfossil wood samples.
{"title":"Isotopic evidence for elevated photorespiration during the last glacial period","authors":"Max K. Lloyd, Rebekah S. Sprengel, Barbara E. Wortham, Regan E. Dunn, Daniel E. Ibarra, Todd E. Dawson, Daniel A. Stolper","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01841-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01841-x","url":null,"abstract":"Low atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are thought to suppress land plant productivity in part by promoting photorespiration, wherein illuminated C3 plants uptake molecular oxygen and release carbon dioxide. This could act as a negative feedback that limits atmospheric carbon dioxide decline during glacial periods. However, colder glacial temperatures would suppress photorespiration, potentially counteracting this feedback. Here we tested the hypothesis that land plants photorespired more during glacial periods by applying a proxy for photorespiration rate based on clumped isotope compositions of wood methoxyl groups, validated in modern and recent trees, to North American subfossil tree specimens from the last glacial period. We find that, across most of ice-free North America, trees from the last glacial period photorespired more than more recent trees from similar locations and more than contemporary trees from higher latitudes. We reconcile these differences using a single model relationship between temperature, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and photorespiration, which suggests that, during glacial periods, photorespiration increased primarily in warmer growing environments that cooled by about 6 °C or less. This supports the hypothesis of a negative feedback that regulates atmospheric carbon dioxide by increasing photorespiration and restricting land plant productivity during glacial periods. Low carbon dioxide levels during the last glacial period enhanced photorespiration in trees across North America, indicating a decline in land plant productivity, according to measurements of clumped isotopes in subfossil wood samples.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1232-1238"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145441140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-04DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01851-9
Our analysis of mineral deposits in a cave in North Greenland reveals a sensitive High Arctic Late Miocene climate at moderate CO2 levels, balanced between wetter and warmer permafrost-free conditions and ephemeral glacier expansion.
{"title":"Caves record permafrost-free North Greenland under moderate Late Miocene CO2 levels","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01851-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01851-9","url":null,"abstract":"Our analysis of mineral deposits in a cave in North Greenland reveals a sensitive High Arctic Late Miocene climate at moderate CO2 levels, balanced between wetter and warmer permafrost-free conditions and ephemeral glacier expansion.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1194-1195"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145434344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-03DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01802-4
Naomi Ochwat, Ted Scambos, Robert S. Anderson, J. Paul Winberry, Adrian Luckman, Etienne Berthier, Maud Bernat, Yulia K. Antropova
Understanding and predicting marine-terminating glacier instability presents one of the greatest challenges to forecasting future sea level rise. An extreme case of such instability is the Hektoria Glacier on the Eastern Antarctic Peninsula, which retreated ~25 km between January 2022 and March 2023. Here we investigate the dynamics and drivers of this retreat event primarily from analysis of geophysical data and satellite imagery. We find that retreat commenced immediately after the loss of decade-old fast ice in the Larsen B embayment and was associated with an almost 6-fold increase in flow speed and 40-fold increase in glacier thinning, relative to the period immediately before the fast ice loss. We also find that in November–December 2022, the glacier retreated a total of 8.2 ± 0.2 km in two months—a retreat rate nearly an order of magnitude faster than published values—and began with a transition from tabular iceberg calving to buoyancy-driven calving on an ice plain, a flat area where the glacier was only lightly grounded. Hence we conclude that in this case, retreat primarily resulted from an ice plain calving process, rather than atmospheric or oceanic conditions as suggested previously. This implies that marine-terminating glaciers with ice plain bed geometry can be easily destabilized. An Antarctic glacier retreated after the loss of landfast ice at a peak rate almost an order of magnitude faster than previously recorded because of buoyancy-driven ice calving, according to an analysis of geophysical data and satellite imagery.
{"title":"Record grounded glacier retreat caused by an ice plain calving process","authors":"Naomi Ochwat, Ted Scambos, Robert S. Anderson, J. Paul Winberry, Adrian Luckman, Etienne Berthier, Maud Bernat, Yulia K. Antropova","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01802-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01802-4","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding and predicting marine-terminating glacier instability presents one of the greatest challenges to forecasting future sea level rise. An extreme case of such instability is the Hektoria Glacier on the Eastern Antarctic Peninsula, which retreated ~25 km between January 2022 and March 2023. Here we investigate the dynamics and drivers of this retreat event primarily from analysis of geophysical data and satellite imagery. We find that retreat commenced immediately after the loss of decade-old fast ice in the Larsen B embayment and was associated with an almost 6-fold increase in flow speed and 40-fold increase in glacier thinning, relative to the period immediately before the fast ice loss. We also find that in November–December 2022, the glacier retreated a total of 8.2 ± 0.2 km in two months—a retreat rate nearly an order of magnitude faster than published values—and began with a transition from tabular iceberg calving to buoyancy-driven calving on an ice plain, a flat area where the glacier was only lightly grounded. Hence we conclude that in this case, retreat primarily resulted from an ice plain calving process, rather than atmospheric or oceanic conditions as suggested previously. This implies that marine-terminating glaciers with ice plain bed geometry can be easily destabilized. An Antarctic glacier retreated after the loss of landfast ice at a peak rate almost an order of magnitude faster than previously recorded because of buoyancy-driven ice calving, according to an analysis of geophysical data and satellite imagery.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 11","pages":"1117-1124"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145434352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-03DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01835-9
Analysis of satellite remote sensing and geophysical data reveals that following the loss of stabilizing fast ice, an Antarctic Peninsula glacier retreated at a record pace due to a fast calving and flotation process that occurred as it reached an ‘ice plain’, where the ice is lightly resting on bedrock.
{"title":"Antarctic glacier retreats at record rate due to rapid flotation and calving process","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01835-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01835-9","url":null,"abstract":"Analysis of satellite remote sensing and geophysical data reveals that following the loss of stabilizing fast ice, an Antarctic Peninsula glacier retreated at a record pace due to a fast calving and flotation process that occurred as it reached an ‘ice plain’, where the ice is lightly resting on bedrock.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 11","pages":"1093-1094"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145434353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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