Glaciers and Ice Sheets

Melting ice – flooded shores

Which islands and coastal regions of our planet will remain inhabitable in the future primarily depends on the intensity of ice mass loss in Greenland and the Antarctic. AWI researchers are currently using satellites to determine the status of these ice sheets
Now we have the perfect prescription

With the aid of our new ultra-wideband ice radar, AWI glaciologists can scan glaciers and ice sheets from top to bottom. Angelika Humbert and Tobias Binder explain how this technology works
E-mails from the Filchner Ice Shelf

The fate of our world’s coasts will be decided in the Antarctic, where huge ice shelves have to date prevented gigantic inland ice masses from pouring into the ocean and raising the sea level. AWI researchers have placed instruments directly below the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf
Greenland's Ice Conveyor Belt

To better understand the ice flows scientists drill through an ice stream for the first time - with the aid of a pioneering ice camp and methods.

Greenland

Ice really is a hot commodity

AWI glaciologist Ilka Weikusat talks about drilling through a fast-flowing Greenland ice stream for...

Infografik: Vergleich der Meereisbildung und Strömungsverhältnisse vor und unter dem Filchner-Ronne-Schelfeis heute und in der Zukunft

Oceanography

How warm water masses threaten the ice...

How the ocean‘s heat is threatening the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf

Die Heißwasser-Bohrung durch das Filchner-Schelfeis läuft und darf bis zum Durchbruch nicht unterbrochen werden. Anderenfalls gefriert das Wasser in den Leitungen und Rohren sofort.

Glaciology

How hot-water drilling works

How do scientists drill through the ice shelf which is 900 metres deep? With very hot water!

News

EU Project

Retrieving Climate History from the Ice

Climate Changes of the past: The consortium BE-OI has spent three years combing the Antarctic ice, looking for the ideal site to investigate the climate history of the past 1.5 million years. The results were presented at the conference "European Geosciences Union".

Arctic

Massive meteorite impact crater discovered

An international research team has discovered a 31-km wide meteorite impact crater buried beneath the ice-sheet in northern Greenland. This is the first time that a crater of any size has been found under one of Earth’s continental ice sheets. The research aircraft Polar 6 from the Alfred Wegener Instittue verified the discovery with radar measurements. The research is described in a new study just published in the internationally recognized journal Science Advance.

Antarctic

Far fewer lakes below the East Antarctic Ice Sheet than previously believed

In the course of an extensive Antarctic expedition, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research recently investigated several lakes beneath Recovery Glacier that had been previously detected by satellite remote sensing. The experts found very few substantial bodies of water, which is a surprising result.