Early twentieth century evolution of Ferdinand glacier, Svalbard, based on historic photographs and structure-from-motion technique

ABSTRACT

Glaciers in central Svalbard are retreating since their Little Ice Age maximum, dated in the area to around 1900. Past areal extent of glaciers can confidently be reconstructed based on end moraine position. However, reconstructions of thickness and volume of glaciers remain relatively more complicated and uncertain. In this study, past changes in thickness and volume of the Ferdinand Glacier was reconstructed based on Structure-from-Motion techniques and field dGPS measurements in combination with analysis of historic photos from 1908 and aerial photos from 1938. According to the comparison of the historic and recent photograph, the 1908 glacier front height was estimated to 50 m and the glacier volume to 91.5 mil m³ and the 1938 glacier volume estimated to 76.1 mil m³, in comparison to 6.29 mil m³ in 2014. This means more than 90% loss of volume since 1938. Melting of the glacier in the first half of the twentieth century resulted in thinning and lowering of the glacier surface together with substantial ice volume loss, whereas the areal extent was almost not affected. Considering the 2014 mean ice thickness, together with ongoing climate warming, it is likely that the Ferdinand Glacier will completely disappear within the next 30 years.

KEYWORDS:

• Historic photographs
• little ice age
• structure-from-motion
• ice thickness
• glacier volume
• Svalbard

Acknowledgements

Special thanks belong to the staff of Adam Mickiewicz University Polar Station for field assistance. Help of two reviewers and the editor with improving the manuscript is also highly appreciated.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Jan Kavan works at the Department of Geography (Polar–Geo Lab), Masaryk University in Brno. His main research interests are the environmental changes in polar regions associated especially with glaciers, hydrological cycle and sediment budget. He is involved in different research topics in the region of Antarctic Peninsula, Svalbard or Iceland.

ORCID

Jan Kavan http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4524-3009

Additional information

Funding

The study was completed thanks to the Arctic Field Grant project ‘Glacier mass balance – central Svalbard’ (RiS ID 10903), funded by The Research Council of Norway and carried out with logistic support of UNIS. The research was also financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports project LM2015078 and project of Masaryk University, MUNI/A/1251/2017.