On the edge: what are ice-marginal lakes doing to Greenland’s ice sheet?

ORIGIN: https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/

What effect is a network of freshwater lakes at the edge of the Greenland ice sheet having on glacier flow? Researchers from the University of Leeds investigate.

Ice-marginal lakes along the edge of the Greenland ice sheet are amplifying ice loss. Image: Adobe.

Around 264 gigatons of Greenland’s ice has been lost annually since 2002 because of warmer air and sea temperatures; this has caused sea levels to rise by 0.8 mm every year.

New research has shown this ice loss is being amplified by a growing network of freshwater lakes that are forming as the ice retreats, but what effect will it have on rising sea levels?

Not just a passive feature

Researchers from the University of Leeds have examined glacier behaviour across the entire Greenland ice sheet and found these meltwater lakes at the edge of the sheet are far from passive features of the landscape.

These ice-marginal lakes – or ILMs – sit along the edge of the ice and appear as glaciers pull back, exposing deep, bowl-shaped basins in the landscape. These basins quickly fill with