Johan Dahl Land, south Greenland: the end of a 20th century glacier expansion

The Qajuuttap Sermia glacier system north of Johan Dahl Land, on the southern slope of the Greenland ice sheet (the inland ice), has shown continuous advancing behaviour from approximately 1940 until approximately 2000. This contrasts with neighbouring sectors of the inland ice to the west and southeast, where the ice sheet has shown amore ‘normal’ trend of recession and thinning of themargin since about 1850–1890, and that has continued throughout the last half of the 20th century. The Qajuuttap Sermia glacier system has also attracted interest for its hydropower potential, and detailed investigations were carried out in 1977–1983. This article summarises the fluctuations of the Qajuuttap Sermia glacier system, and documents the demonstrable advance of the individual glaciers of the system from the early 1940s until the early years of the present millennium. The cause of the advance seems likely to be related to variations in precipitation over the southernmost parts of the inland ice, with the highlands north of Johan Dahl Land directly influencing the passage of low pressure systems moving both northwards along the west coast and northeastwards along the east coast of Greenland.