IGPP's Fricker, Siegfried, team discover varied, high-rate melt along Ross Ice Shelf

AGU's Geophysical Research Letters has published "High basal melting forming a channel at the grounding line of Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica," co-authored by IGPP glaciologists Helen Amanda Fricker and Matt Siegfried. The team, led by Oliver Marsh, University of Canterbury, spent six weeks collecting radar data to map ice melt along the Ross Ice Shelf. The study discovered melt rates vary along the shelf, but that the speed of melt (up to 25 times higher than expected) in some locations may hamper the Ross Ice Shelf's sustainability.