These streams stop and start over time. They're influenced by the geology beneath. It may be a sub-ice volcano causing melting or the type of sediment under the ice that affects their flow. Totaling 190 by 24 miles in size, it broke off the Ross Ice Shelf in March and recently split into two. MacAyeal suggests that B-15 could threaten shipping routes into McMurdo Station, our largest U.S. base.
Climate models predict that the polar regions are highly sensitive to climate change.
Looking northward, the ice pack of the Arctic Ocean responds to small changes in radiation from the sun. It also exerts an influence on life in the entire world ocean. The core of the station was an icebreaker purposely frozen into the pack ice of the ocean hundreds of miles north of Alaska and left to drift for a full year. At the start, researchers found ice one meter thinner than expected, and even thinner ice at the end. Of course, a single experiment cannot pin down global warming.