'Ghost Glaciers' Protect Greenland's Landscapes (NBC News)

 

 

‘Ghost Glaciers’ Protect Greenland’s Landscapes (NBC News)

A story by LiveScience published by NBC News features a new study by Lee Corbett, a doctoral student in Dartmouth’s Department of Earth Science, that reveals how “ghost glaciers” have protected Greenland’s ancient bedrock landscapes from the island’s ice sheet.

“These ghost glaciers come and go, and leave very little evidence of their presence,” Corbett tells LiveScience. “There are indications that these rocks have been exposed and buried for many Ice Age cycles, (but) when the ice advanced over this area, it was essentially frozen to the bedrock below. It’s not eroding or shaping the landscape,” says Corbett.

“The ancient landscapes that have been preserved beneath these ghost glaciers might even be a million years old,” says Corbett, who, the article notes, conducted the research while she was a graduate student at the University of Vermont. The study was recently published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin.

Read the full story, published 8/6/13 by NBC News via LiveScience.