C. H. Ostenfeld Glacier

C. H. Ostenfeld Glacier is a major outlet glacier in northern Greenland that drains nearly 14,500 square kilometers of the Greenland Ice Sheet into Victoria Fjord, making it the fjord’s largest single source of ice and freshwater discharge. First mapped in 1917 during Knud Rasmussen’s Second Thule Expedition and named for botanist Carl Hansen Ostenfeld, it has been difficult to monitor because of its remote setting. Satellite records show alternating advance and retreat rather than steady change. Its most dramatic recent shift came in the early 2000s, when most of its floating tongue collapsed, one of North Greenland’s earliest recorded abrupt ice-tongue losses.

Nationalparken · Greenland