Huge crater discovered in Greenland ice sheet

Cologne (dpa) – A massive flood that breached the Greenland ice sheet in 2014 created a huge crater that is now being researched, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced on Wednesday.

Approximately 90 million cubic metres of water from an underground lake are said to have shot out of the ground within 10 days, which roughly corresponds to the volume of water that flows over Niagara Falls in nine hours.

The ESA referred to the findings of an international research team, which have now been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Satellite data, including from the ESA, were studied under the leadership of scientists from Lancaster University and the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling in the United Kingdom.

The water that emerged is meltwater, and its formation could have been encouraged by climate change and the higher temperatures it has caused, the researchers said. The result of the flood is a massive crater – 2 square kilometres in size and 85 metres deep – in the uninhabited north of the island.

Researchers could hardly believe the results

In addition to the sudden water outflow, the researchers documented significant damage to the ice sheet: Ice blocks up to 25 metres high were torn out, deep cracks ran through the ice, and the surface was eroded by the force of the water.

The region was previously considered frozen according to existing models, where water rising through the ice was deemed hardly possible.

“When we first saw this, because it was so unexpected, we thought there was an issue with our data. 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,” said research leader Jade Bowling, according to the announcement.

Important insights for climate research

While it was previously assumed that meltwater flows from the surface of the ice sheet down to the base and eventually into the sea, these new findings show that water can also move in the opposite direction – upwards through the ice, the researchers shared.

The results provide information on how ice sheets respond to climate change and what global impacts this has.

They also raise fundamental questions for climate research. As the Arctic continues to warm, the risk of such sudden flood events increases – especially as more and more surface meltwater penetrates previously frozen areas of the ice sheet.

Future research must now show how frequently such phenomena could occur and what global consequences they may have.