NASA Explains How Do Glaciers Melt

Space.com

Learn how glaciers melt and contribute to seas rising in this animated explainer from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.   Credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Transcript

00:00The sheet of ice that covers Greenland contains enough frozen water to raise oceans by 25

00:06feet across the globe.

00:08As the planet warms, glaciers melt, causing sea levels to rise.

00:12But not all of that melt happens at the surface.

00:16In the summertime, rivers and pools of meltwater find their way down through the glacier to

00:22the bed below.

00:23From there, the water runs beneath the glacier until it reaches the ocean.

00:27Because meltwater contains no salt, it weighs less than ocean water and rises up the front

00:33of the glacier in what scientists call a plume.

00:37Around Greenland, oceans are cold and fresh near the surface and warm and salty at depth.

00:42As the plume rises, it draws in the warm, salty water melting the glacier face from the bottom

00:48up.

00:49Eventually, a piece of the glacier breaks off, making an iceberg in a process known as calving.

00:57As the oceans warm, calving speeds up, causing glaciers to retreat and flow faster.

01:05Faster glaciers dump more ice into the oceans and drive sea levels higher across the globe.

01:10the waterрос and inlet water.

01:12The water falls each other under the glacier.

01:13This is theorde of the ocean.

01:15Aside from the ocean where the earth runs north,�를 turn the lake at the glacier,

01:17the ocean.

01:19This is what's quite points for the ocean.

01:20It's sobie changing!

01:21The water falls of the ocean.

01:21This is abbot down...

01:22It's small % of our water.

01:23...

01:24It's really how you change the sea.

01:26This integral requires sand for the ocean of gain water is camminting.

01:27It's got lots of growing water intoメ vegetation near the ocean.

01:29It's a special place for the ocean.

01:30It's located almostство of water back into the ocean.

01:32Let us back into the ocean.

01:34The ocean of the ocean of the ocean is wide ocean czyt when ...

01:36a lot of water to the ocean.

01:37The ocean on California level will be found,

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