Recently, it appears that glacial lakes are in continuous change. They’re losing loads of amounts of water at a much quicker tare than initially believed, and it is indeed frightening. Such a fact also has a significant impact on ice sheet dynamics and loss, according to researchers from Cambridge University.
The team of researchers is releasing a claim after a drone examination of a glacier in Greenland nack in 2018. The results showed an immense loss of a large amount of water in a considerably short period. The estimated loss was about 4.8 million cubic meters, approximately the quantity of almost 2000 Olympic swimming pools. It is indeed alarming because such a loss happened in only 5 hours.
Glacial lakes that appear in the summer are temporary. They are being fed by meltwater intended to reduce through fissures into sub-glacial grottoes reaching under the ice sheet. Also, knowing how thick the ice sheet is, the passing by waterfalls that happen can be almost hundreds of meters big.
Greenland Glacier Lost 4.8 Million Cubic Meters of Water in Only 5 Hours
For their study, the team of researchers examined a glacier situated in northern Greenland. They analyzed the waste process through many drones passes. The drones captured moments when a fracture that had been created the previous year crossed with the lake and triggered the waste process. Researchers identified the ice sheet was elevated lightly by the sheer amount of meltwater, and moved quicker, from three meters/day to five meters/day.
Tom Chudley, a lead author of the study, released some essential details in an announcement from the university. He stated, “We may have under-estimated the effects of these glaciers on the overall instability of the Greenland Ice Sheet. It’s a rare thing actually to observe these fast-draining lakes – we were lucky to be in the right place at the right time.”
Greenland is known to have made it in the headlines more than once this year due to the continuous melt of its ice sheet, and its expected impact on the global sea-level increase. By this summer, for example, Greenland lost 10 billion tonnes of ice in only one day.