Moving Antarctic Lakes
A bizarre group of 11 Antarctic lakes are moving at half a kilometre a year in the opposite direction to the ice shelf itself. They are also seemed to be moving faster than the ice shelf they are on top of. The lakes are on the George VI ice shelf which is sandwiched between the Antarctic Peninsula and Alexandra Island which were first spotted in the 1970s but this amazing knowledge was only just given to us last year.
Some scientists believe that this happens because of where George VI is positioned, trapped between both the Antarctic mainland and Alexandra Island. As the banana-shaped ice shelf squeezes through the channel between the mainland and the island, its outer edges buckle into troughs and the lakes sit in each of the troughs. The ice shelf pushes into Alexandra at an unusual angle causing the end of each lake gets dragged across the coast. This can be proven by using satellite images of the Antarctic area
Standing water on an ice shelf suggests that the ice shelf is close to collapsing as the water widens the cracks of the ice, but a scientist believes that this will not happen with George VI anytime soon because of its positioning which stabilises it by the rocky edges of the channel surrounding it, but it might eventually collapse from global warming. Causing the loss of something different and interesting forever.
This article is written for you by Hannah Camm
Group 9 blue.
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