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Experts aren’t sure what causes the surge, but they suspect this particular one isn’t related to climate change. Still, a warming world is causing many of the world’s glaciers to recede and has been implicated in some surge events.
The bottom base of the ice creates a lubricant for the glacier to tile or move.
“The whole thing is flowing very slowly, and then suddenly it accelerates, and that can cause the glacier at higher elevations to thin, and then the ice slumps down to lower elevations,” Kingslake explained. “Then that happens, and it slows back down, and the material at lower elevations starts to melt, and the ice near the top thickens, and the whole thing repeats. It’s doing, like, a see-saw thing.”
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Sputnik International
Glacier in Alaska Surging for the First Time in 64 years
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The Muldrow Glacier, one of the five large glaciers that flows off the slopes of the Denali mountain peak in Alaska, is now moving 10 to 100 times faster than it was several months ago. A pilot first noticed the speed shift in early March, observing from the air a (relatively) sudden cracking of ice along the length of the glacier. And while officials have been expecting the sudden speed shift, it’s still a momentous event.
National Park Service
Earther reported on Muldrow’s newfound celerity, an event which marks a natural shift in the glacier’s pace of movement. Muldrow, along with only 1% of all glaciers, is a surge-type glacier; meaning it experiences a periodic “surge” in speed, ramping up by up to two orders of magnitude.
A glacier in Alaska is moving 100 times faster than it should msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
If you’re visiting Alaska this year, you may get to experience a once-in-a-lifetime geologic event. A glacier in Denali National Park has started moving between 50 to 100 times faster than normal.