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\t\t\t\t\t\t30\/07\/2025
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Using data from several Earth-observing satellites, including ESA\u2019s CryoSat and the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions, scientists have discovered that a huge flood beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet surged upwards with such force that it fractured the ice sheet, resulting in a vast quantity of meltwater bursting through the ice surface.<\/p>\n
Partially funded by ESA\u2019s Earth Observation FutureEO<\/a> programme, an international team of researchers, led by scientists at Lancaster University and the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling in the UK, studied a previously undetected lake beneath the ice sheet in a remote region of northern Greenland.<\/p>\n Using 3D models of the ice sheet surface from the ArcticDEM<\/a> project, alongside data from multiple satellite missions including ESA\u2019s ERS<\/a>, Envisat<\/a> and CryoSat<\/a>, and Europe\u2019s Copernicus Sentinel-1<\/a> and Sentinel-2<\/a>, and NASA\u2019s ICESat-2<\/a> missions, the researchers discovered that, in 2014, this subglacial lake suddenly drained.<\/p>\n Their\u00a0research<\/a>, published today in\u00a0Nature Geoscience, reveals how, under extreme conditions, flooding from the drainage of a lake underneath the ice could force its way upwards and escape at the ice sheet surface.\u00a0<\/p>\n These new finds shed new light on the destructive potential of meltwater stored beneath the ice sheet.<\/p>\n \t\t\tGreenland subglacial lake outburst Over a 10-day period in the summer of 2014, a massive crater \u2013 85 metres deep and spanning 2 square kilometres \u2013 formed on the surface of the ice sheet as 90 million cubic metres of water were suddenly released from this hidden subglacial lake.<\/p>\n This is equivalent to about nine hours’ worth of water thundering over Niagara Falls at peak flow, making it one of the largest recorded subglacial floods in Greenland.<\/p>\n While the sudden surge of meltwater was startling in itself, even more alarming was the accompanying damage \u2013 towering 25-metre-high ice blocks torn from the surface, deep fractures in the ice sheet, and the ice surface scoured by the flood\u2019s destructive force.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubglacial lake outburst fractures and elevation change<\/a><\/p>\n Jade Bowling, who led this work as part of her PhD at Lancaster University, said, \u201cWhen we first saw this, because it was so unexpected, we thought there was an issue with our data. However, as we went deeper into our analysis, it became clear that what we were observing was the aftermath of a huge flood of water escaping from underneath the ice.<\/p>\n \u201cThe existence of subglacial lakes beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet is still a relatively recent discovery, and \u2013 as our study shows \u2013 there is still much we don\u2019t know about how they evolve and how they can impact on the ice sheet system.<\/p>\n \u201cImportantly, our work demonstrates the need to better understand how often they drain, and, critically, what the consequences are for the surrounding ice sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n While it was previously believed that meltwater travels downwards from the surface of the ice sheet to its base and eventually flows into the ocean, these new findings reveal that water can also move in the opposite direction \u2013 upwards through the ice.<\/p>\n
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