Footloose Glaciers Crack Up

News Release American Geophysical Union (AGU) USGS Scripps Homepage ScrippsNews Home - New detailed observations of what happens when glaciers float on ocean surface July 14, 2010 By Robert Monroe - Scripps Institution of Oceanography/University of California, San Diego University of Colorado, Boulder glaciologist Tad Pfeffer photographing Columbia Glacier from the western margin in June 2005. Photo: Shad O'Neel, USGS. Glaciers that lose their footing on the seafloor and begin floating behave very erratically, according to a new study led by a Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego researcher. Floating glaciers produce larger icebergs than their grounded cousins and do so at unpredictable intervals, according to Scripps glaciologist Fabian Walter and colleagues in a paper to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters . This study presents the first detailed observation of the transition from grounded to floating glaciers. Such a transition is currently taking place at Columbia Glacier, one of Alaska's many tidewater glaciers. Tidewater glaciers flow directly into the ocean, ending at a cliff in the sea, where icebergs are formed.