Subglacial flood beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet caused a major speed-up of one of the world’s largest glaciers
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 in their boundary conditions. Surprisingly active networks of subglacial lake drainage have recently been found beneath the Antarctic ice sheet and tentatively linked to the onset of fast ice flow.