The image above depicts the region of West Antarctica where scientists measured ice speed. The fast-moving central ice streams are shown in red. Slower tributaries feeding the ice streams are shown in blue. Green areas depict slow-moving, stable areas. Thick black lines depict the areas that collect snowfall to feed their respective ice streams.
Published Jan 25, 2002
To the untrained eye, Antarctica may look like a giant piece of solid ice that rarely changes, but scientists studying the continent have long known better. The icy surface is dynamic, with glaciers and "streams" of ice flowing toward the ocean.
Published Apr 27, 2007
Sections of the Greenland Ice Sheet that end on land are slowing—a sliver of good news for sea level rise.
Published Oct 30, 2015
Scientists mapped the motion of Antarctica’s ice sheets and revealed unexpected patterns.
Published Aug 19, 2011
This approximately true-color image shows ice fragments left over from previous breakups of the Wilkins Ice Shelf.
Published Apr 19, 2009
A slab of ice larger than the continental United States smothers much of East Antarctica. Draining from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is a river of ice nearly 800 kilometers long. This stream, the Recovery Ice Stream, slides roughly 35 billion tons of ice into the ocean each year.
Published Apr 26, 2007
This image shows the latest estimate of the ice edge around Law Promontory, which juts out from East Antarctica’s coastline near Stefansson Bay.
Published Jul 23, 2010
Thinner than the 2.3-kilometer-thick center, the outer edges of the Greenland ice sheet develop melt zones like the one shown here during the warm summer months.
Published Apr 7, 2007
Acquired October 7, 2011, this natural-color image shows an ice menagerie off the coast of East Antarctica.
Published Oct 23, 2011
Throughout Antarctica, broad ribbons of ice known as ice streams shed large quantities of ice into the ocean.
Published Apr 24, 2007
To understand ice sheets, glaciologists venture both below the surface with ice cores, and into the sky with satellites. Satellite imagery of the Greenland Ice Sheet reveals melt ponds that can affect glacier flow and sea level.
Published Oct 29, 2008
