| Zachariae Isstrom | |
| Other Name: | Zachariæ Isstrøm |
| Type: | Piedmont glacier |
| Location: | Greenland |
| Map: | Greenland |
| Coordinates: | 78.9167°N -31°W |
| Mark: | Blue_pog.svg |
| Area: | 91780km2 |
| Width: | 26 km |
| Terminus: | Jokel Bay, Greenland Sea North Atlantic Ocean |
Zachariae Isstrom (Danish: Zachariæ Isstrøm; Isstrøm being the Danish word for ice stream) is a large glacier located in King Frederick VIII Land, northeast Greenland.
This glacier was named by the Denmark expedition 1906–08 after Georg Hugh Robert Zachariae (1850–1937), an officer of the Danish Navy.[1]
It drains an area of 91780km2 of the Greenland Ice Sheet with a flux (quantity of ice moved from the land to the sea) of 11.7km3 per year, as calculated for 1996,[2] increasing to 15km3 in 2015. The glacier holds a 0.5-meter sea-level rise equivalent.
Zachariae Isstrøm has its terminus in the northern part of Jokel Bay, south of Lambert Land and north of Nørreland, near the Achton Friis Islands.[3] It terminates into an embayment previously packed with multi-year calf ice.[4]
Zachariae Isstrøm broke loose from a stable position in 2012 and entered a phase of accelerated retreat as predicted in 2008.[5]
From a state of approximate mass balance until 2003 it is now losing mass at about 5 Gt/yr. The ice velocity increased by 50% in 2000–2014. In 2012 it detached from a stabilizing sill and retreated rapidly along a downward-sloping, marine-based bed[6] with substantial calving.[7]