The Greenland ice sheet is melting, pushing more water out into the ocean, and contributing to global sea level rise—one of the major risks of climate change. Now, NASA scientists have found that pockets of liquid water trapped inside granular snow can drain into the ocean, which is an important piece of information for modelling how we predict future sea level rise. Greenland's thick ice sheet isn't really solid ice. It contains pockets of liquid water, lead author Kristin Poinar, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, told me over the phone. These are called "firn aquifers," and occur when surface-level glacier ice melts in the summer, then keeps its liquid state year-round—thanks to snow that creates a blanket on top of it, trapping it beneath the surface, Poinar said.

 

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