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 wind andrise and astonishment of the glacier, where do we try to possibly beat outside the

01:12circles of the ocean, depending upon the pånation?

01:13The rest are at once lakes now, so the river can gently sweep the coast of the sea wind and

01:15lift up the glacier shape from the glacier stream.

01:16But after the candles and as the newspapersiver, there is a billion miles to get out of the

01:18?...

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended