A study of ice-surface shape adds to evidence that a significant part of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) sits on sediments below sea level, which would tend to make it less stable.
Anne Le Brocq of Durham University, UK, and her colleagues studied the 'plan curvature' — a measure of the sinuousness of contours — of the ice sheet. The plan curvature depends on the dynamics of the ice in a way that reveals the depth and deformability of the underlying surface. From this analysis, the researchers suggest that the Recovery Glacier may be sitting on saturated sediments more than 1,000 metres below sea level (area marked on map). If this part of the EAIS were lost owing to instability, it would raise sea levels globally by at least 2.6 metres.
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Glaciology: Judge a basin by its cover. Nature 455, 141 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/455141c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/455141c
