NASA Visualization: How Warm Ocean Water Melts Pine Island Glacier's Ice Shelves

In West Antarctica, glaciers resting on bedrock that is under water. Warmer water is able to flow onto the continental shelf, and then all the way underneath the ice shelves – the floating ice that extends from glaciers and the ice sheet. The water melts the ice shelves from below which can cause them to thin and break off.

Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Cindy Starr (USRA): Lead Visualizer