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Where Water Meets Ice

WHOI engineer Will Ostrom readies moorings for deployment in Sermilik Fjord, Greenland. The instrument packages measure temperature, salinity, and pressure in the fjord—data that scientist Fiamma Straneo is collecting to detect changes in water properties and see how those changes relate to changes in the large glacier that flows into this fjord. Ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet has quadrupled over the past two decades, contributing to global sea level rise. One reason may be warmer seawater melting glaciers from below, causing them to flow more rapidly, with implications for climate change.(Photo by Fiamma Straneo, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)