Publication details

A Boulder Beach Formed by Waves From a Calving Glacier Revisited: Multidecadal Tsunami–Controlled Coastal Changes in Front of Eqip Sermia, West Greenland

Authors

KOSTRZEWA Oskar SZCZYPIŃSKA Małgorzata KAVAN Jan SENDERAK Krzysztof NOVÁK Milan STRZELECKI Mateusz C.

Year of publication 2024
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
web https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppp.2235
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppp.2235
Description The calving of glaciers regularly produces tsunami-like waves that pose a serious threat to coastal environments. Those strong waves are not only able to move ice mélange and redistribute icebergs, growlers, or sea ice across a fjord but also flood and remodel neighbouring cliffs and beaches. Here, we analyze over 90?years (1929–2023) of coastal zone changes that occurred in front of Eqip Sermia. We show that calving waves play a dominant role in transforming the lateral moraine and forming a beach and spit system south of the glacier front. Part of the former moraine has transformed into a boulder-dominated spit, which closed the lagoon over the years. By multidecadal analysis, we also detected a significant erosion of unconsolidated cliffs located on the opposite side of the bay (~0.53?m per year between 1985 and 2023). In addition, we demonstrate that even a single event (one calving wave) can remodel a beach surface by entrainment of up to 1.8-m-diameter boulders and the erosion of the beach surface by washing away sand and gravel from rocky outcrops. Our study constitutes important progress toward modes of paraglacial coastal evolution in regions characterized by rapidly retreating calving glaciers.

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