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One panel in a series of six depicting the glacial lakes drainage.

One panel in a series of six depicting the glacial lakes drainage.
One panel in a series of six depicting the glacial lakes drainage.
One panel in a series of six depicting the glacial lakes drainage.
One panel in a series of six depicting the glacial lakes drainage.
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252823
Cook, John E.
One panel in a series of six depicting the glacial lakes drainage.
Illustration
06/26/2015
graphics/glacial_lake_series/GlacialLake5.jpg
Caption from Oceanus online:
The tensional stress builds up until it is relieved by a sudden large crack in the ice that extends below the lake. The huge volume of water in the lake surges into the opening, widening and extending it, and keeping it filled with water all the way to the base of the ice sheet.
Image Of the Day caption:
In 2006, scientists at WHOI and the University of Washington discovered that cracks can form suddenly at the bottom of lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet and drain the lakes within hours. To learn why these cracks, or hydrofractures, form, the researchers installed a network of GPS receivers to record subtle movements of the ice before, during, and after a sudden drainage. In 2015, the researchers published a new study that revealed a fascinating sequence of forces and events that triggers the cracks. The water drains to the bedrock, lubricating the flow of ice to the sea and accelerating sea level rise.
Also used as part of a single infographic in Oceanus magazine, Vol. 51, No. 2, pg. 22. Caption: Thousands of supraglacial lakes form each spring and summer on top of the Greenland Ice Sheet as sunlight returns to the region. Many lakes disappear within hours when large cracks form below them, draining the lakes and sending torrents of water to the base of the ice sheet. To learn what triggers this phenomenon, a team of scientists installed a network of GPS units around a lake.
Illustration by Jack Cook
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/scientists-find-trigger-that-cracks-lakes
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