Quirky glacial behavior explained
Thursday, November 29, 2018 - 15:20
in Earth & Climate
In August 2012, in the frigid wilderness of West Greenland, the Jakobshavn Glacier was flowing and breaking off into the sea at record speeds, three times faster than in previous years. An underwater calving event had caused the massive glacier to lose its footing. But the movement was not linear like a runaway train (as previous studies suggested), but dynamic: drastically speeding up, then slowing down after a few days.