Unravelling the 'inconvenient truth' of glacier movement
Predicting climate change depends on many factors not properly included in current forecasting models, such as how the major polar ice caps will move in the event of melting around their edges. This in turn requires greater understanding of the processes at work when ice is under stress, influencing how it flows and moves. The immediate objective is to model the flow of ice sheets and glaciers more accurately, leading in turn to better future predictions of global ice cover for use in climate modeling and forecasting. Progress and future research objectives in the field were discussed at a recent workshop organized by the European Science Foundation (ESF), bringing together glaciologists, geologists, and experts in the processes of cracking under stress in other crystalline materials, notably metals and rocks.