e360 digest

04 Nov 2010: Water Flow Through Ice Sheets
Accelerates Effects of Warming, Study Says

Meltwater that flows into the crevasses and fractures of ice sheets speeds up the warming of these ice sheets more rapidly than current models suggest, according to a new study. In fact, the movement of warmer water, as if through a network of pipes, can accelerate warming of massive ice formations like the Greenland Ice Sheet within decades rather than centuries, researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder say. While current thermal models typically consider the effects of air temperatures on the ice sheets, the researchers modeled the effects of warmer water flowing through so-called moulins — crevasses and cracks created when the sheets grind over bedrock — during the summer melt season. “We are finding that once such water flow is initiated through a new section of ice sheet, it can warm rather significantly and quickly, sometimes in just 10 years,” said Thomas Phillips, a research scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and co-author of the study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The seepage of meltwater into crevasses in Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf was a key factor in its rapid disintegration in 2002.

Yale Environment 360 is
a publication of the
Yale School of Forestry
& Environmental Studies.

SEARCH e360

CONNECT

Twitter: YaleE360
e360 on Facebook
Donate to e360
View mobile site
Bookmark
Share e360
Email newsletter
Subscribe to our feed:

ABOUT

About e360
Contact
Submission Guidelines
Reprints

e360 VIDEO

The Warriors of Qiugang, a Yale Environment 360 video that chronicles the story of a Chinese village’s fight against a polluting chemical plant, was nominated for a 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Watch the video.

DEPARTMENTS

Opinion
Reports
Analysis
Interviews
e360 Digest
Video Reports

TOPICS

Biodiversity
Business & Innovation
Climate
Energy
Forests
Oceans
Policy & Politics
Pollution & Health
Science & Technology
Sustainability
Urbanization
Water

REGIONS

Antarctica and the Arctic
Africa
Asia
Australia
Central & South America
Europe
Middle East
North America

e360 VIDEO REPORT

As temperatures rise and water supplies dry up, tribes in East Africa increasingly are coming into conflict. A Yale Environment 360 video reports on a phenomenon that could become more common: how worsening drought will pit groups — and nations — against one another. Watch the video.

e360 MOBILE

The latest
from Yale
Environment 360 is now available for mobile devices at e360.yale.edu/mobile.



Top Image: aerial view of Iceland. © Google & TerraMetrics.

e360 VIDEO REPORT

Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining, an e360 video examining the environmental and human impacts of this mining practice, won the award for best video in the 2010 National Magazine Awards for Digital Media. Watch the video.

OF INTEREST

RESOURCES