Paleofluvial Mega-Canyon Beneath the Central Greenland Ice Sheet

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1239794
• Publication Date: 2013-08-29T18:10:40Z
• Authors: Jonathan L. Bamber; Martin J. Siegert; Jennifer A. Griggs; Shawn J. Marshall; Giorgio Spada
• Keywords: Greenland ice sheet; Antarctic ice sheet

Ice Lubricant The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets both possess hydrological systems that allow water accumulating from the melting of surface to be transported base sheet. If water, when it reaches ice-bedrock interface, is distributed over large areas, will lubricate rapid sheet flow toward sea. Bamber et al. (p. 997 ) report existence a large, 750-km-long subglacial canyon in northern Greenland, which may act as channel for transport basal meltwater margin thus influence overall dynamics.