William Glacier retreat

The animation shows how the William Glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula has retreated since 1955, roughly 3 km in all. The last two retreat lines, 2016 and 2021 are based on Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data, and the very early years, before the advent of the satellite era, are based on aerial observations. Recent research has led to the discovery that glacier calving can excite vigorous internal waves – a process that has been neglected in driving ocean mixing in computer models. led to the discovery that glacier calving can generate huge underwater tsunamis – a process that has been neglected in driving ocean mixing in computer models.

Read full story: Glacier calving and a whole lot of mixing