Articles | Volume 13, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1959-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1959-2019
Research article
 | 
17 Jul 2019
Research article |  | 17 Jul 2019

Past water flow beneath Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, West Antarctica

James D. Kirkham, Kelly A. Hogan, Robert D. Larter, Neil S. Arnold, Frank O. Nitsche, Nicholas R. Golledge, and Julian A. Dowdeswell

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Short summary
A series of huge (500 m wide, 50 m deep) channels were eroded by water flowing beneath Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers in the past. The channels are similar to canyon systems produced by floods of meltwater released beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet millions of years ago. The spatial extent of the channels formed beneath Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers demonstrates significant quantities of water, possibly discharged from trapped subglacial lakes, flowed beneath these glaciers in the past.
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