What are supraglacial lakes? Supraglacial lakes form on the surface of glaciers. Meltwater accumulates in depressions or hollows on the ice surface. We think of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet as being very cold and dry, with temperatures well below 0°C, but in some places, surface melting does occur in the summer melt season. In …
Antarctic supraglacial lakes and ice-shelf collapse Read More »
There is a lot in the media at the moment about the ‘collapse’ of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. See my previous blog post for more information. But when we talk about ‘ice sheet collapse’, what do we actually mean? When we talk of people ‘collapsing’, they fall down right in front of us in …
Introduction | Past evidence of ice sheet collapse | Hypothesis of marine ice sheet instability | References | Comments | Introduction In 1978, Mercer was one of the first to identify that rising temperatures could have catastrophic consequences in West Antarctica, triggering a collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet[1]. This is because much of …
What is an ice shelf? | Ice shelf collapse | Mechanisms of ice shelf collapse | Ice shelf buttressing | References | Comments What is an ice shelf? Ice shelves are floating tongues of ice that extend from grounded glaciers on land. Snow falls on glaciers, which flow downstream under gravity. Ice shelves are common …
