Jade Bowling

“Importantly, our work demonstrates the need to better understand how often they drain, and, critically, what the consequences are for the surrounding ice sheet.”

Jade Bowling · said date not stated · reported 2025-07-30

The researchers emphasized the need to understand how often subglacial lakes drain and the consequences for the ice sheet.

“When we first saw this, because it was so unexpected, we thought there was an issue with our data,”

Jade Bowling · said date not stated · reported 2025-07-30

The researchers initially suspected a data error when they observed an unexpected 85-meter elevation drop in the ice surface.

“The existence of subglacial lakes beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet is still a relatively recent discovery, and – as our study shows – there is still much we don't know about how they evolve and how they can impact on the ice sheet system,”

Jade Bowling · said date not stated · reported 2025-07-30

A study documented a subglacial lake drainage event in Greenland that burst through the ice sheet in 2014.

“However, as we went deeper into our analysis, it became clear that what we were observing was the aftermath of a huge flood of water escaping from underneath the ice.”

Jade Bowling · said date not stated · reported 2025-07-30

Further analysis revealed the surface collapse was the aftermath of a massive subglacial flood escaping from beneath the ice.