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Thousands of supraglacial lakes form on top of the Greenland Ice Sheet each summer. They can be miles wide. The lakes concentrate a weight of water, building up pressure that can induce cracks in the ice at the bottom of the lakes. The cracks, called moulins, can extend through a mile or more of ice—all the way to the base of the glacier, where ice meets the ground.
(Photo by Ian Joughin, UW Polar Science Center)
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Posted: July 2, 2008
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