Abstract
Methane (CH4) emissions have been detected at glacier margins globally, with subglacial CH4 production identified beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet. Despite its potential role in carbon cycling, an assessment of the sources, production pathways and prevalence of subglacial CH4 export is lacking. Here we report on extensive sampling of 26 meltwater streams across the entire western margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet, revealing a radiocarbon age of 1.5–4.4 thousand years before present for pervasive, biogenic CH4 laterally transported by emerging subglacial supersaturated meltwater. These ages corroborate a smaller-than-present Greenland Ice Sheet during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (11–5 thousand years ago before present), stimulating proglacial organic matter accumulation, which was then overridden by subsequent glacial advance. Applying a continuum degradation model, we demonstrate that western Greenland’s subglacial organic matter can support CH4 release for another 200 years, with a lateral flux of 715 (481–1,020) tonnes per year from its land-terminating sectors. We highlight the pertinence of subglacial carbon cycling to the release of CH4 from all glacial environments globally, and a dynamic sensitivity of the Greenland Ice Sheet not yet fully realized in ice sheet models, via the isotopic assessment of subglacial CH4.
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Glacier biogeochemical cycling and downstream impacts
Glacial retreat converts exposed landscapes from net carbon sinks to sources
Rapid and sensitive response of Greenland’s groundwater system to ice sheet change
Data availability
All data produced from field sampling and reported in this paper are reported in Table 1 or Extended Data tables or are taken from previously published work (that is, modelled basins and discharge fluxes), which are referred to in the text. Data associated with the paper are available via PANGAEA at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.993007 (ref. 25).
Code availability
Code produced and used in the manuscript is available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18699948 (ref. 48).
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Czech Ministry of Education as part of the ERC-CZ programme (project LL2004 ‘MARCH4G’ to M.S.). A.H. gratefully acknowledges support through a UArctic Chair in Cryosphere Science, the Research Council of Norway (grant #342265), the Research Council of Finland (grant #363970) and the Fulbright Commission. Additionally, J.R.H., E.L.D. and J.G.M. were supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF, OPP-2232980); J.R.C., C.J.J. and S.E.S. were supported by Independent Research Fund Denmark (MetICE Project, grant 0135-00229B) and S.A. was supported by EU H2020 Nunataryuk, ARC (NuTTI) and ULB strategy grant. UiT affiliated researchers are supported by the Research Council of Norway (Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 332635). Kangerlussuaq International Science Support and C. Sørensen are thanked for field logistics support. We also thank T. Röckmann, C. van der Veen and E. Popa from the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht (IMAU) of Utrecht University for providing the stable isotope analysis of CH4 (δ13C and δ2H), as part of the ATMO-ACCESS project supported by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020–Research and Innovation Framework Programme, H2020-INFRAIA-2020-1, grant agreement number: 101008004, to A.S.-P.
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M.S. conceived the project idea. J.E.H., A.S.-P., P.A.P., P.K., L.C.P.W., J.D.Ž., J.T., J.R.H., E.L.D., J.G.M., G.L.-G., S.E.S., J.R.C., C.J.J. and M.S. contributed to sample collection. J.E.H., A.S.-P., M.H.G., P.K., L.C.P.W., J.T., J.R.H., E.L.D. and J.G.M. contributed to laboratory analysis. J.E.H., A.S.-P., P.A.P., P.K., L.C.P.W., J.C.Y., M.H.G. and S.A. contributed to data analysis. P.A.P. and S.A. contributed to modelling analysis. J.E.H. and A.S.-P. compiled the main dataset. J.E.H., M.S. and A.H. wrote the manuscript with contributions from all authors.
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Extended data
Extended Data Fig. 1 Photographs of each sampling location.
Photographs taken during sampling, showing each location used for CH4(aq) export estimates, highlighting the differences in river size and outlet type. Basemap adapted from ref. 40 under a Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Stable isotope plot of carbon-hydrogen isotopes of dissolved CH4.
Samples from proglacial rivers in northwest (triangles), central west (squares), and southwest (circles) Greenland. Classification zones and definitions of methane origin are derived and adapted from ref. 6 and references therein. VSMOW denotes Vienna standard mean ocean water and VPDB denotes Vienna Pee Dee belemnite. Figure adapted with permission from ref. 6, Springer Nature Limited.
Extended Data Fig. 3 Radiocarbon calibration plots.
Plots generated using OxCal IntCal20 v4.4.4 (ref. 45).
Extended Data Fig. 4 Maps showing modelled ice sheet basins.
Sample locations from northwest (A–B), central west (D–F), and southwest (G–O) sectors of the ice sheet are denoted (circles) with the modelled ice sheet catchment basins for each area (grey dotted lines) and modelled stream locations (blue lines)13, with annual discharge derived from basin areas shaded for each sample location in corresponding colour. Basemap data from ref. 41.
Extended Data Fig. 5 Reactive Continuum Model to estimate potential methanogenesis rates.
Estimates of potential methanogenesis rate 200 years into the future in subglacial sediments under the Leverett Glacier (site SW6, Kangerlussuaq region, SW), resulting from the degradation of OC via acetoclastic methanogenesis over time. The evolution of the methane production rate is simulated from the last deglaciation around 4000 years ago until 200 years into the future (4200 years since last deglaciation) for a wide range of plausible organic matter reactivities (see methods section in main text). Here we show volume-integrated results of methane production rates for the last year of the future scenario (year 2200) to assess the required physicochemical conditions to maintain current estimates of CH4(aq) export6. Previous results show how estimates of CH4 flux from Leverett Glacier6 (red area and horizonal black lines: 2.87 t yr−1, 6.3 t yr−1 and 9.3 t yr−1; low, mean, high case scenario, resp.) are still attainable in 200 years’ time depending on a combination of OC reactivity (1 yr−1, x-axis), anoxic and methanogenic active areas of the subglacial sediment (km2, circle size), and sediment depth (m, colour gradient). This simple mass balance assumes produced methane is exported without further oxidation (aerobic or anaerobic), and thus likely overestimates the export, hence we name it potential lateral export (t yr−1).
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Hatton, J.E., Stehrer-Polášková, A., Píka, P.A. et al. Mid-Holocene retreat of the Greenland Ice Sheet indicated by subglacial methane release.
Nat. Geosci. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-026-01976-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-026-01976-5
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