Antarctica now has more than 65,000 meltwater lakes as summer ice melts

Oct 9, 2019

A turquoise lake (C) forms from melting snow near Cape Folger on the Budd Coast in the Australian Antarctic Territory, January 11, 2008. Australia's CSIRO's atmospheric research unit has found the world is warming faster than predicted by the United Nations' top climate change body, with harmful emissions exceeding worst-case estimates. Picture taken January 11, 2008. REUTERS/Torsten Blackwood/Pool (ANTARCTICA) - GM1DXGHASHAA

When ice shelves have collapsed in the past, satellites have recorded networks of lakes growing. Image: REUTERS/Torsten Blackwood

Jennifer Arthur

PhD student, Cryospheric Remote Sensing, Durham University

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Antarctica

Blue meltwater ponds cover the surface of Larsen B Ice Shelf in January 2002 (left) before its abrupt collapse two months later (right). Open ocean appears as black in both images. Image: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

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Meltwater lakes on Sørsdal Glacier, Antarctica (red dot on larger map). Image: Google Maps

Meltwater drains away Image: Sanne Bosteels

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