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A buried Antarctic lake drained through hydrofracture

Ground-penetrating radar caught a buried meltwater lake draining through vertical fractures at an East Antarctic ice-shelf grounding zone.

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What process drained the buried Antarctic lake?

Vertical hydrofracture through lake-bed fractures.

Where was the lake relative to the ice shelf?

In the grounding zone of an East Antarctic ice shelf.

How deep was the lake buried before collapse?

About 3.5 m below the ice surface.

What water volume did GPR interpolation give?

About 1.5 billion cubic metres.

What surface-height change did REMA show after drainage?

Average decrease 2.56 m ± 0.53 m; max 4.77 m ± 0.53 m.

When did Sentinel-1 backscatter jump over the lake?

Largest increase between 25 March and 30 April 2016.

Why can liquid water persist through Antarctic winter?

Snow accumulation insulates buried water from the cold atmosphere.

What ice-shelf role is threatened by meltwater ponding?

Buttressing that regulates flow from tributary glaciers.

What happens to grounding-zone fractures as ice flows seaward?

They can advect onto the floating ice shelf and precondition it to instability.

When were the two GPR campaigns?

February 2016 (before) and December 2017 (after) drainage.

What surface-melt mechanism helps form the buried lake?

Wind-albedo feedback: katabatic winds erode snow and expose low-albedo blue ice.