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posted by martyb on Friday November 09 2018, @04:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the why-are-the-glaciers-moving-so-fast? dept.

Phys.org:

AWI [Alfred Wegener Institute] researchers recently assessed subglacial lakes detected by satellite, and found very little water. But if that's the case, what is the source of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet's massive ice streams?

In the course of an extensive Antarctic expedition, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) investigated several lakes beneath Recovery Glacier that had been previously detected by satellite remote sensing. The experts found very few substantial bodies of water, which is a surprising result: up to that point, the scientific community had assumed that overflowing lakes below the East Antarctic Ice Sheet were the reason that ice masses began sliding and forming ice streams to begin with. This new study has just been released in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Recovery Glacier, located in the Coats Land region of Antarctica, has always been a slumbering giant, transporting ice from the high plateau of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet down toward the Weddell Sea at a snail's pace of only 10 to 400 metres per year. Its drainage area stretches nearly 1000 kilometres inland from the Filchner Ice Shelf on the coast, and is nearly three times the size of Germany. These two aspects could make the glacier into a potential threat, in the event that climate change accelerates its tempo some time in the future. According to forecasts, if this comes to pass, Recovery may also be the stream through which East Antarctica loses the most ice. A global sea-level rise would be the direct result.

The ice sheet had been presumed to be hydroplaning on sub-glacial meltwater.


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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday November 09 2018, @04:38PM (1 child)

    by Freeman (732) on Friday November 09 2018, @04:38PM (#759921) Journal

    So, in the event, this thing is more likely sitting on a substantial landmass with no substantial bodies of water below it. Would that make it a lot more stable than previously believed? So, less susceptible to "climate change" / "global warming."

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Friday November 09 2018, @05:25PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 09 2018, @05:25PM (#759943) Journal

    No, because the ice streams are an observed phenomena, and don't go away just because the prior explanation didn't work out. The observed phenomena remain observed, i.e., the ice is still streaming off. We just lost our explanation of why.

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