The sudden emptying of cast iron water torn blocks of ice up to 25 meters high, caused deep fractures of the ice cap and eroded the surface of the ice.
Climate: Record drought for the beginning of July in Europe and around the Mediterranean
While scientists initially thought that melted water flowed only from the surface of the ice cap towards its base and then possibly pour into the ocean, these new discoveries reveal that water can also move in the opposite direction, that is to say from bottom to top, through ice.
This flood occurred in an area where the models indicated that the ice bed was frozen. This led the researchers to suggest that intense pressure had caused fractures under and through the ice cap, thus creating channels by which the water was able to go up.
“When we noticed this, it was so unexpected that we thought there was a problem with our data” explains Jade Bowling, who directed this work as part of his doctorate at the University of Lancaster, “our work demonstrates the need to better understand the frequency in which these emptyes occur and, above all, what are the consequences for the surrounding glacial cap.”