Paleofluvial Mega-Canyon Beneath the Central Greenland Ice Sheet

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Bamber, Jonathan L., Siegert, Martin J., Griggs, Jennifer A., Marshall, Shawn J., Spada, Giorgio
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2013
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Greenland; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1239794; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1239794

Ice Lubricant The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets both possess hydrological systems that allow water accumulating from the melting of surface ice to be transported to the base of the ice sheet. If that water, when it reaches the ice-bedrock interface, is distributed over large areas, it will lubricate rapid ice sheet flow toward the sea. Bamber et al. (p. 997 ) report the existence of a large, 750-km-long subglacial canyon in northern Greenland, which may act as a channel for the transport of basal meltwater to the margin of the ice sheet and thus influence overall ice sheet dynamics.