There’s a new type of criminal on the loose. They’re big. They’re cold. And they’ve been committing acts of thievery in Antarctica for the past eighteen years.
A new study, published in The Cryosphere, reveals that a glacier in Antarctica has been stealing ice from its neighbor. This act of ice piracy, observed using satellite imagery, is a phenomenon never before seen in such a short period of time. In fact, until now, ice piracy was understood to be a centuries- or even millennia-long process.
“We didn’t know ice streams could ‘steal’ ice from each other over such a short period, so this is a fascinating discovery,” said lead author Heather L. Selley in a press release. “It’s unprecedented as we’re seeing this from satellite data, and it’s happening at a rate of under 18 years, whereas we’ve always thought it was this extremely long, slow process.”
