CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Ice-flow modelling

The “Cliffs Notes” on Ice-Cliff Failure

May 6, 2021
The “Cliffs Notes” on Ice-Cliff Failure
An ice cliff above the ocean adjacent to Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. Credits: NASA Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The retreat of large glaciers that drain the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could expose immense ice-cliffs at newly-bared calving faces, which are the exposed ends of glaciers where, in these cases, glacier ice meets the ocean. Past a certain height, these ice cliffs will become susceptible to collapsing from high stresses, a process known as structural ice-cliff failure. If a taller ice clif ...[Read More]

Glaciers on Mars

April 7, 2015
Glaciers on Mars
Image from the High Resolution Stereo Camera shows that the glaciers are covered by a layer of dust (Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin).

“I did not know that there is water on Mars!” This a sentence I hear surprisingly often when I talk about glaciers on Mars. In fact, it has been known for some time that water exists in the form of ice and water vapour on the planet. For example, water ice layers several kilometres thick cover the Martian poles, and the ground close to the Polar Regions has permafrost patterns very similar to what ...[Read More]