Fast glacier flow: Ice streams, surging, and tidewater glaciers

Fast flowing glaciers are unusual but important. Jakobshavns Glacier in western Greenland illustrates this point (Figure 1). Considered to be the world's fastest glacier, its maximum observed flow rate (measured in midsummer near the floating terminus) is 8360 m yr−1 [Lingle et al., 1981]. Except for a tidal influence near the terminus, the flow is believed to be fairly steady [Bindschadler, 1984].