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Ian Joughlin and Sarah Das looking out at lake north of North Lake.

Ian Joughlin and Sarah Das looking out at lake north of North Lake.
Ian Joughlin and Sarah Das looking out at lake north of North Lake.
Ian Joughlin and Sarah Das looking out at lake north of North Lake.
Ian Joughlin and Sarah Das looking out at lake north of North Lake.
Geolocation data
(68°45′37″N, 49°31′25″W)
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334391
Linder, Christopher L.
Ian Joughlin and Sarah Das looking out at lake north of North Lake.
Still Image
12/02/2008
graphics/PD4_greenland/cl_20080716195904.jpg
This small lake lies north of North Lake, not far from our new campsite. We made a brief evening trip to the lake, tripping over numerous small cracks in the ice. It's entirely possible this lake will also drain while we are here, providing more data on how this phenomenon happens.
Image of The Day caption:
During a 2008 expedition, glaciologists Sarah Das (WHOI), right, and Ian Joughin (University of Washington) trek toward a lake that formed as ice melts in summer and pools in depressions atop the Greenland ice sheet. The researchers confirmed that supraglacial lakes like these can build up enough pressure to crack at their bottoms, sending torrents of water to the base of the glaciers. The water greases the skids between ice and ground, speeding up the glaciers' flow toward the ocean. Climate change is accelerating this process, releasing more ice into the ocean, where it melts and raises sea levels.
Caption from Oceanus magazine, Vol. 58, No. 2, Pg. 40:
Sarah Das (WHOI), right, and Ian Joughin (University of Washington) trek toward a lake that formed as ice melted in summer and pooled in depressions atop the Greenland ice sheet.
Photo by Chris Linder
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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