Sack Lunch Seminar (SLS)

Fjords form a key link in the climate system by connecting glaciers of the Greenland Ice Sheet to the ocean. They are the gateways for importing oceanic heat to melt ice and for exporting meltwater into the ocean. Submarine melting in fjords has been implicated as a driver of dynamic glacier changes in the past several decades. However, there are no direct measurements of this melting, and little is known about the fjord processes that modulate melt rates and export meltwater. Here, we explore the drivers of fjord circulation and heat transport in Sermilik Fjord, near the terminus of Helheim Glacier. We investigate the competing roles of buoyancy forcing from the glacier and remote forcing from the shelf. Building on estuarine studies of salt fluxes, we assess the fluxes of heat and salt through the fjord and develop a new framework for inferring submarine melt rates from glacial fjord budgets.