edgepedia

Glaciers of Greenland and the Arctic islands

11 articles

Brasvellbreen

Bråsvellbreen (Brasvellbreen), southernmost outlet of the Austfonna ice cap on Nordaustlandet, Svalbard; a surge-type tidewater glacier, about 45 km long, that advanced roughly 20 km in the 1930s in Svalbard's largest recorded surge and is now retreating.

Eyjafjallajökull

Eyjafjallajökull, also called Eyjafjalla glacier, is an ice-covered stratovolcano in southern Iceland whose 2010 eruption produced fine ash that closed most European airspace for about a week.

Holtedahlfonna

Holtedahlfonna, also called Plateau Holtedahl, is a 1,375 km2 polythermal ice cap in Haakon VII Land, northwestern Spitsbergen, Svalbard; the second largest on Spitsbergen, it feeds the tidewater glacier Kronebreen and hosts ice core and mass balance monitoring.

Jakobshavn Glacier

Jakobshavn Glacier (Sermeq Kujalleq, Jakobshavn Isbræ) is West Greenland's fastest, largest outlet glacier, draining 6.5% of the ice sheet, disintegrating ice shelf in 2002, and ocean-temperature-paced retreat and 2016 re-advance.

Langjökull

Langjökull ("Long Glacier") is Iceland's second largest ice cap, ~900 km² in the central western highlands. Two LIA advances (1400–1550, 1680–1890); 29% volume lost since 1890; hosts the man-made Into the Glacier tunnel.

Manson Icefield

Manson Icefield is a mountain icefield on southeast Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada, known for the highest concentration of actively surging glaciers in the Queen Elizabeth Islands.

Mýrdalsjökull

Mýrdalsjökull, Iceland's fourth largest ice cap (598 km², ~140 km³ in 1991; 510 km² in 2023), covers the Katla volcano on the south coast, source of jökulhlaups and rapid 1994–2010 mass loss.

Negribreen

Negribreen, a ~40 km tidewater glacier in central eastern Svalbard draining into Storfjorden, surged in 1935-1936 and again from 2015-2016, reaching over 25 m/day, one of Svalbard's fastest-flowing glaciers.

Prince of Wales Icefield

Prince of Wales Icefield, a 19,325 km² ice field on central Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada; second largest ice mass in the Canadian High Arctic, with negative mass balance driven by calving from Trinity and Wykeham glaciers.

Snæfellsjökull

Snæfellsjökull is a 1,446 m glacier-capped stratovolcano on the western tip of Iceland's Snæfellsnes peninsula, centerpiece of Snæfellsjökull National Park (170 km²), with a 200 m ice-filled summit crater and about 16% of its Little Ice Age glacier area remaining.

Vestfonna

Vestfonna: second largest ice cap of Svalbard, on Nordaustlandet at 80°N, covering ~2340 km² with a 630 m summit. Near balance in recent decades; projected equilibrium-line loss between 2043 and 2152 depending on RCP scenario.