The reservoir of groundwater (water held underground in the soil or in pores and crevices in rock) lies beneath the Whillans Ice Stream in West Antarctica, experts say.
Grace Barcheck/Cornell University
Matthew Siegfried, forefront, and seismologist Marino Protti, of the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica, prepare to move equipment at Whillans Ice Plain. The Transantarctic Mountains are in the background. Slow motion precursors give earthquakes the fast slip
February 16, 2021
At a glacier near the South Pole, earth scientists have found evidence of a quiet, slow-motion fault slip that triggers strong, fast-slip earthquakes many miles away, according to Cornell research published Feb. 5 in Science Advances.
During an earthquake, a fast slip happens when energy builds up underground and is released quickly along a fault. Blocks of earth rapidly slide against one another.