Greenland’s Glacier Lakes, Pt. 2
No comments ILULISSAT, GREENLAND– When scientists try to discover why a large glacier in Greenland suddenly speeds up, they look for all kinds of clues: tidal fluctuations, summer melting, the sudden flood of water to the base of the glacier when a giant melt lake cracks the ice open in a gush as mighty as Niagara Falls…
This picture, taken from a helicopter, depicts deep ice cracks and melting streams atop a Greenland glacier.
In ‘Greenland’s Glacier Lakes, Part 1,’ we introduced you to Ian Joughin, who has been studying these flood events using seismometers and GPS devices in the lakes to understand how they might be related to glacier speed and whether they impact the Greenland Ice Sheet as a whole.
In this video, we ask Ian about the significance of these floods in an interview we recorded with him as he was traveling up to his research camp. Check back soon to learn more about our trip to Sarah Das and Ian’s research site atop the Jakobshavn Glacier.
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