During their work, the authors analyzed images from the ICESat-2 satellite, which depicted the ice shelf
Thanks to the photographs, it turned out that in June 2019year, a large lake with a volume of 600–750 million cubic meters of water disappeared in less than a week. In place of the former lake, a crater-like depression with an area of about 11 km² formed.
We believe that the water accumulated in the deeplake, opened a crack in the ice shelf below the lake and flowed into the ocean. This process is known as hydraulic fracturing. This sudden event appears to be the culmination of decades of meltwater accumulation and storage.
Roland Warner, lead author of the study and glaciologist at the Australian Antarctic Partnership Program
The authors determined that the ice surface at the site of the lake dropped by 80 m, and the surrounding floating glacier, having released its water load, rose by 36 m.
Based on the results of their work, they concluded that the water was able to break through a glacier about 1.5 km thick. It is noted that this is the first time that scientists have encountered hydraulic fracturing of this scale.
The authors say it is too early to conclude that the draining of the lake was due only to a warming climate.
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