As glaciers melt, huge chunks of ice break free and splash into the sea, generating tsunami-size waves and leaving behind a powerful wake as they drift away.
As glaciers melt, huge chunks of ice break free and splash into the sea, generating tsunami-size waves and leaving behind a powerful wake as they drift away. This process, called calving, is important for researchers to understand. But the front of a glacier is a dangerous place for data collection.
To solve this problem, a team of researchers from the University of Washington and collaborating institutions used a fiber-optic cable to capture calving dynamics across the fjord of the Eqalorutsit Kangilliit Sermiat glacier in South Greenland. This allowed them to document — without getting too close — one of the key processes that is accelerating the rate of glacial mass loss and in turn, threatening the stability of ice sheets, with consequences for global ocean currents and local ecosystems.
“We took the fiber to a glacier, and we measured this crazy calving multiplier effect that we never could have seen with simpler technology,” said co-author Brad Lipovsky, a UW assistant professor in Earth and space sciences. “It’s the kind of thing we’ve just never been able to quantify before.”
Their findings were published in Nature on Aug. 13.
Read More: University of Washington
Image: University of Washington researcher Dominik Gräff (pictured on the left) and a crew member head for shore on a Zodiak boat. The research vessel Adolf Jensen floats on the fjord’s icy surface in the background and the calving front is visible on the left. (Credit: Julia Schmale via University of Washington)
