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What's hidden under the Greenland ice sheet?

4,978,175 views |

Kristin Poinar |

TED2017

• April 2017

The Greenland ice sheet is massive, mysterious -- and melting. Using advanced technology, scientists are revealing its secrets for the first time, and what they've found is amazing: hidden under the ice sheet is a vast aquifer that holds a Lake Tahoe-sized volume of water from the summer melt. Does this water stay there, or does it find its way out to the ocean and contribute to global sea level rise? Join glaciologist Kristin Poinar for a trip to this frozen, forgotten land to find out.

The Greenland ice sheet is massive, mysterious -- and melting. Using advanced technology, scientists are revealing its secrets for the first time, and what they've found is amazing: hidden under the ice sheet is a vast aquifer that holds a Lake Tahoe-sized volume of water from the summer melt. Does this water stay there, or does it find its way out to the ocean and contribute to global sea level rise? Join glaciologist Kristin Poinar for a trip to this frozen, forgotten land to find out.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Kristin Poinar

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Kristin Poinar uses remote sensing and numerical models to study the interaction of meltwater with ice flow, especially on the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Richard B. Alley | Princeton University Press, 2002 | Book

The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future

A journey through the Earth’s climate system — past ice ages, present glaciers, future scenarios — doesn’t have to be arduous. How is the Greenland Ice Sheet like a rubber band? A pot roast? Did you know that complex interactions among ocean currents are not much different from driving a car around downtown? Richard Alley, a prominent and funny glaciologist, is the right person to take you deeper into the Earth’s climate system. I read this book when I was 21 years old and hiding from my physics homework; it made me hooked on climate science.

A video and news story by NASA on the discoveries described in this talk. | Explore

NASA Study Identifies New Pathway for Greenland Meltwater to Reach Ocean

Kristin Poiner et. al | Front in Earth Science, 2017 | Article

"Drainage of Southeast Greenland Firn Aquifer Water through Crevasses to the Bed"

The scientific paper that formed the basis of this talk.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.