Changes in the velocity of large outlet glaciers and ice streams in Greenland and Antarctica are important for ice-sheet mass balance and hence sea level. Mass loss in large parts of both ice sheets is being driven by the recent accelerations of outlet glaciers2–5 in response to unknown or poorly constrained climatic or internal perturbations
read more Subglacial flood beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet caused a major speed-up of one of the world’s largest glaciers