Something strange is chance to one of the coldest places on Earth . Dazzling blue lake are flower like summertime wildflowers atop the East Antarctic ice mainsheet ’s Langhovde Glacier . And that ’s got scientist worried — because they ’ve seen these lakes before .
“ Supraglacial lakes”—meltwater ponds that form as warm summer air fire up the surface of an ice sheet — have beenspreading across Greenland for years . They ’re both a signboard of global warming and a causal agency of ice sheet collapse : as meltwater from the lakes drains into the underlying ice , it can lube the ice-skating rink sheet ’s foundation , cause it to weaken . This feedback is cogitate to beone of the reasonsGreenland is now melting at an accelerating charge per unit . ( Earth ’s northmost sparkler sheet shedroughly a trillion tonsbetween 2011 and 2014 . )
Now , the lake have bound to the other end of the world , peppering an ice sheet that ’s enjoyed comparative stability compared with its overheat neighbour to the north . Anew studyin Geophysical Research Letters reap on artificial satellite and meteorologic information to retrace the first farsighted - term platter of meltwater ponds along the coast of East Antarctica . allot to the authors ’ psychoanalysis , nearly 8,000 dazzling grim lake come out on the Langhovde Glacier in the summer between 2000 and 2013 .
As in Greenland , many of these fugacious lakes appear to be draining their contents into the underlying ice . It ’s the first fourth dimension this behaviour has been observed in East Antarctica , a place that study co - author Stewart Jamieson , trace as“the part of the continent where people have for quite a foresighted prison term assumed that it ’s relatively stable , there ’s not a immense amount of variety , it ’s very , very cold . ”
The presence of the lakes is , unsurprisingly , draw now to temperature , with the superlative figure of lake constitute in the unusually warm summertime of 2012 - 2013 .
It ’s a bit early to say whether East Antarctica ’s sweet summertime look is go to mean worry in the prospicient - full term . “ We do not cogitate that the lakes on Langhovde Glacier are at present affecting the glacier , but it will be authoritative to supervise these in the future tense to see how they evolve with surface air temperature change , ” lead subject area writer Emily Langley told Gizmodo in an e-mail .
Indeed , the prospect of more lake and big lake is worrisome , because Antarctica containsmuch more chalk than Greenland , enough to raise global ocean levelshundreds of foot if it all decide to melt . Recent studies hint that parts of this icy fort — especially the West Antarctic ice sheet — could be far more raw to a few degrees of warmingthan we had hoped .
On a brighter note , perchance that absurd Antarctic hotelwill shortly become a lakefront getaway . Imagine : for a mere $ 72,000 , you ’ll be able to hang out with emperor penguin and watch the world end in tangible time . How fun !
[ Geophysical Research LettersviaWashington Post ]
AntarcticaClimate changeGlobal warmingScience
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