A first-ever look at ice stream formation

Scientists have captured the birth of a high-speed ice stream for the first time on top of a Russian glacier. In a remote archipelago of the Russian Arctic, Vavilov Ice Cap had been moving at a glacial pace for decades. Then, in 2013, it suddenly started spewing ice into the sea, flowing in what scientists call a glacial surge. But a new study suggests this surge has now become something entirely different. The authors of a new study published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters have docume