This handout image obtained December 2, 2019 courtesy of Tom Chudley shows unmanned aerial vehicle imagery that captured the lake drainage in unprecedented detail, image and five hours later, the lake started to drain, and had lost 5 million cubic metres of water, or two-thirds of its volume. — Tom Chudley/AFP pic
Many of the lakes drain in just a few hours, creating vast openings at the base of the ice, up to a kilometre deep. Meltwater from surface streams continues to flow down them for the rest of the melt season, creating some of the world’s largest waterfalls. Aerial photography captured by the drone from before and after showed a dark blue oval shrink into a smaller, shallower and lighter blue circle.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The Store Glacier advances at a rate of 600 metres per year. The team, which also included scientists from Aberystwyth and Lancaster Universities, found that the sudden drainage of the lake temporarily increased its speed from two to five meters per day.Even more surprising was that this bed of water lifted the glacier’s height by 55 centimeters, the team said.
This happened more than 20 years ago hence late news indeed..