Cryospheric science articles within Nature

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  • Letter |

    Basal lubrication — the input of melt water to the interface between glaciers or ice sheets and bedrock — is often thought to increase ice velocity. However, recent theoretical work illustrated how the development of efficient subglacial drainage associated with high melt-water input can lead to reductions in ice velocity. Now, satellite observations of ice velocity in Greenland are used to provide empirical support: although initial ice speed-up is similar in all years, warm years with high melt-water input experience a dramatic late summer slowdown, relative to warm years. The findings show that expectations of speed-up from basal lubrication alone cannot be assumed to cause net ice speed-up.

    • Aud Venke Sundal
    • , Andrew Shepherd
    •  & Philippe Huybrechts

  • News |

    IPCC estimates of sea level rise corroborated, but large ice sheets might endure.

    • Richard A. Lovett

  • News & Views |

    Sliding of the Greenland ice sheet is affected by the production of surface meltwater. A new theory shows that whether the result is a long-term speed-up or slow-down of ice motion depends on the variability in melt input. See Letter p.803

    • Martin P. Lüthi

  • Letter |

    Increased melting is often assumed to cause acceleration of ice sheets and glaciers through basal lubrication, possibly leading to increased rates of sea level rise. Now a physically-based model challenges this view, illustrating that above a critical threshold, increased melt will suppress the dynamic thinning process. Short-term spikes in water delivery, as from lake drainage or precipitation, still have the potential to generate spikes in velocity, but overall increases in melt do not appear likely to cause velocity increases.

    • Christian Schoof

  • Letter |

    Water within glaciers and ice sheets has a strong potential to influence ice velocity and, ultimately, the rate of sea-level rise. But so far direct measurement of the magnitude and characteristics of water stored within glaciers has proved difficult. Here, a combination of in situ borehole measurements and radar and seismic imaging has been used to show that there is an extensive network of basal crevasses in the Bench Glacier in Alaska. The crevasses hold water equivalent to at least a decimetre layer.

    • Joel T. Harper
    • , John H. Bradford
    •  & Toby W. Meierbachtol

  • News Q&A |

    Monitoring Greenland's melting glaciers from a 15-metre long sailboat.

    • Hannah Hoag

  • Letter |

    The Younger Dryas — during which Northern Hemisphere temperatures cooled drastically in just a few years — is perhaps the best-known example of abrupt climate change, but its global extent is under debate, particularly in the record of glacial behaviour in New Zealand. These authors present evidence for glacial retreat in New Zealand during the Younger Dryas, supporting the hypothesis that Northern Hemisphere climate changes caused Southern Hemisphere warming through a series of climate feedbacks.

    • Michael R. Kaplan
    • , Joerg M. Schaefer
    •  & Alice M. Doughty

  • Regions |

    Conducting research at some of Earth's most remote locales requires more than just a willingness to travel. Katharine Sanderson offers a research guide.

    • Katharine Sanderson

  • News |

    Antarctic drilling project aims for a definitive record of climate.

    • Chaz Firestone

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