Present-day expansion of the southern part of the Inland Ice

Abstract

In connection with the work on a West Greenland glacier atlas and glacier inventory the activity of a c. 1200 km long segment of the Inland lce was investigated for the years 1950 and 1985. Around 1950 major parts of the ice margin were in a state of thinning and recession and exceptions were mainly confined to restricted highland areas where evidence of advance could be located. Updating of the conditions to 1985 reveals that marginal advances have now spread to parts of the adjoining lowland areas indicating a 'turn of the tide' where the general period of recession since last century to around 1950 is now substituted by a major tendency for advance.