Understanding the ocean's structure and circulation in the vicinity of tidewater glaciers is key to elucidate the role the ocean is playing in modulating loss of freshwater from the continents and to quantify the present rate and future evolution of sea level rise. Patagonia contains the largest temperate ice bodies in the Southern Hemisphere, and the vast majority of glaciers that form the Patagonian Ice Fields are currently retreating. Here, glaciological, meteorological, and oceanographic observations collected since 2010 in a fjord adjacent to Jorge Montt glacier, a rapidly retreating glacier in the Southern Patagonia Ice Field, are used to explore key processes that explain the supply of warm water to the ice-ocean interface, the structure and evolution of the freshwater output from the glacier, and the overall impact that the ocean is playing in the retreat of the glaciers.

Dr. Carlos Moffat received a B.S. in Marine Biology from the University of Concepción, Chile and a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and is currently an assistant professor at the School of Marine Science and Policy at the University of Delaware. His research interests include the study of glacier-ocean interactions in Patagonia and Antarctica, of river outflows, and of shelf dynamics in upwelling systems.

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