Inland thinning of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica
A.Shepherd, D.J. Wingham, J.A.D. Mansley, H.F.J. Corr,
Science, February 2nd, 2001
Giant rivers of ice thread their way across the Antarctic
Ice Sheet to the sea. The rivers, termed by scientists "streams", are the
largest flows of ice in the world. Some streams are over 2 kilometres thick,
30 km wide and travel at speeds up to 1 km per year. Radar observations by
polar orbiting, European ERS satellites have been used by CPOM scientists
to map in detail the geography of the streams, many of which were hitherto
unknown. A major task of CPOM is to determine if the speed of the streams is
increasing; if so sea level will rise as a consequence. Image courtesy of J.L. Bamber, copyright Science magazine.
