
Meltwater lakes in East Antarctic
Ice shelves are the gatekeepers of Antarctica: they control how much ice flows off the ice sheet and melts into the ocean. Surface melt and subsequent firn air depletion can ultimately lead to disintegration of Antarctic ice shelves causing grounded glaciers to accelerate and sea level to rise. In this study we provide observational and model evidence that this process also occurs over an East Antarctic ice shelf, where meltwater induced firn air depletion is found in the grounding zone. In East Antarctica this meltwater is the result of a regional micro-climate as a result of wind-albedo interaction.