TY - JOUR
T1 - Recent evolution of Marmolada glacier (Dolomites, Italy) by means of ground and airborne GPR surveys
AU - Santin, Ilaria
AU - Colucci, Renato R.
AU - Zebre, Manja
AU - Pavan, Mauro
AU - Cagnati, Anselmo
AU - Forte, Emanuele
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the management of Helica srl (Amaro, Italy) for the permission to use and publish the airborne GPR data set and we gratefully acknowledge Schlumberger through the University of Trieste Petrel® interpretation package academic grant. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 793403 as well as from the “Progetti di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale - PRIN 2015” , grant number 2015N8F555 .
Funding Information:
RRC and EF conceived and led this study. IS and EF wrote the manuscript with the contribution of RRC and MZ. MP processed and interpreted the 2004 dataset, while IS and EF the 2015 one, also making their integration and comparison. The figures have been prepared by IS, RRC, EF and MZ. AC supported the field and logistic operations. All the authors participated in the discussion and revision of the final version of the manuscript.We thank the management of Helica srl (Amaro, Italy) for the permission to use and publish the airborne GPR data set and we gratefully acknowledge Schlumberger through the University of Trieste Petrel® interpretation package academic grant. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 793403 as well as from the “Progetti di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale - PRIN 2015”, grant number 2015N8F555. Authors are also thankful to the Editor in Chief and Guest Editor Emilio Chuvieco, to Philip Hughes, and to other two anonymous reviewers for providing thoughtful and useful comments and suggestions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2019/12/15
Y1 - 2019/12/15
N2 - A 10-year-long evolution of ice thickness and volume of the Marmolada glacier is presented. Quantitative measurements have been performed by using two different Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) datasets. A ground-based survey using two different ground-coupled systems equipped with 100 MHz and 35 MHz antennas was performed in 2004. In 2015 the dataset was collected by using a helicopter-borne step frequency GPR equipped with a 100 MHz antenna. Through a critical discussion of the two different methodologies, we show how both approaches are useful to estimate the ice volume within a glacier, as well as its morphological characteristics and changes with time, even if datasets are acquired in different periods of the year.The observed 2004–2014 ice volume reduction of the Marmolada glacier is equal to about 30%, while the area covered by ice decreased by about 22%. The glacier is now splitted in several separated units. It is very likely that the fragmentation of the Marmolada glacier observed in the period 2004–2014 was accelerated due to irregular karst topography. By applying the observed 2004–2014 ice-melting trend for the future although the Marmolada glacier might behave slightly differently compared to glaciers on non-karstic terrains owing to dominant vertical subglacial drainage, it will likely disappear by the year 2050. Only few isolated very small and thin ice patches will eventually survive due to avalanche feeding and shading at the foot of the north-facing cliffs.
AB - A 10-year-long evolution of ice thickness and volume of the Marmolada glacier is presented. Quantitative measurements have been performed by using two different Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) datasets. A ground-based survey using two different ground-coupled systems equipped with 100 MHz and 35 MHz antennas was performed in 2004. In 2015 the dataset was collected by using a helicopter-borne step frequency GPR equipped with a 100 MHz antenna. Through a critical discussion of the two different methodologies, we show how both approaches are useful to estimate the ice volume within a glacier, as well as its morphological characteristics and changes with time, even if datasets are acquired in different periods of the year.The observed 2004–2014 ice volume reduction of the Marmolada glacier is equal to about 30%, while the area covered by ice decreased by about 22%. The glacier is now splitted in several separated units. It is very likely that the fragmentation of the Marmolada glacier observed in the period 2004–2014 was accelerated due to irregular karst topography. By applying the observed 2004–2014 ice-melting trend for the future although the Marmolada glacier might behave slightly differently compared to glaciers on non-karstic terrains owing to dominant vertical subglacial drainage, it will likely disappear by the year 2050. Only few isolated very small and thin ice patches will eventually survive due to avalanche feeding and shading at the foot of the north-facing cliffs.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073599990&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.rse.2019.111442
DO - 10.1016/j.rse.2019.111442
M3 - Article
SN - 0034-4257
VL - 235
JO - Remote Sensing of Environment
JF - Remote Sensing of Environment
M1 - 111442
ER -