News From the Field

Some Antarctic Ice is Forming from Bottom


March 3, 2011

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Scientists working in the remotest part of Antarctica have discovered that liquid water locked deep under the continent's coat of ice regularly thaws and refreezes to the bottom, creating as much as half the thickness of the ice in places, and actively modifying its structure. The finding, which turns common perceptions of glacial formation upside down, could reshape scientists' understanding of how the ice sheet expands and moves, and how it might react to warming climate, they say.Full Story

Source
Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

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