Shearing from cliffs
Shearing from cliffs
Now, researchers have identified two new processes
that can make this still worse.
2. Warm air, rain and meltwater cause fissures in the shelf, which breaks
away from the glacier in large swaths. Eventually, only vertical ice cliffs
remain.
Temperatures Crevassi
above freezing hydrgfract tiring
0 '
Unstable
cliffs
(Around
300 ft.)
Glacial
retreat e""ilr
lifiri , '
3. As warm water
continually eats away at the glacier's
base, the unstable cliff faces above the water line
shear off under their own massive weight.
Source: Contribution of Antarctica to
Past and Future Sea-Level Rae." by
Robert M. DeConto and David
Pollard, In Nature CHIQUI ESTEBAN. BONNIE BERKOWITZ.
PATTERSON CLARK / THE WASHINGTON POST
EFTA01190034