Climate researcher: Svartisen’s retreat is far from normal

The view from the rest stop at Holandsfjorden still shows Svartisen as a towering presence, but beneath its glacier arm, the bare rock and meltwater channels reveal rapid change, reports Dagbladet.

Engabreen, the glacier tongue extending from Svartisen in Meløy, Nordland, once reached far toward the fjord. Now, exposed grey bedrock marks its former path, a stark contrast to the blue-white ice above.

Bjørn Halvard Samset, physicist and climate researcher at CICERO Center for Climate Research, calls the images from the site a clear illustration of the scale and speed of current changes.

“A single glacier is just one part of a vast system, but glaciers are visible and important examples of the consequences a warmer Earth has for nature and for us,” Samset tells Dagbladet.

Svartisen, Norway’s second-largest mainland glacier after Jostedalsbreen, spans from Saltfjellet and Rana in the east to the Helgeland coast and Meløy in the west. Engabreen, its most famous outlet glacier, has been monitored by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) since 1903.

Samset notes that Engabreen is among Norway’s fastest-moving glacier arms, making it highly sensitive to climate shifts. Its retreat has occurred in phases: rapid withdrawal in the 1930s, stability for decades, then accelerated retreat from around 2000.

“The changes in the 1930s were more linked to North Atlantic shifts and precipitation patterns, while the later changes are tied to global warming,” he explains.

While glaciers respond to multiple factors—temperature, precipitation, elevation, wind, and local conditions—Samset emphasizes the broader trend: globally, glaciers are losing mass at an increasing rate.

“One of the clearest signs of global warming, beyond temperature itself, is that glaciers on average are now losing mass faster and faster worldwide,” he says. “The retreat since around 2000 aligns with what’s happening in the Alps, the Himalayas, Canada, and Alaska. And this won’t stop anytime soon.”

With global warming continuing and no near-term temperature decline expected, Samset warns the trend will only intensify in the coming years.