Lab study suggests longer waves fracture floating ice sheets at lower stress

Lab study suggests longer waves fracture floating ice sheets at lower stress


When waves are moving across ice-covered seas, they can cause sheets of ice to bend and ultimately break. Understanding the processes underlying these wave-induced ice fractures and predicting when they will occur could help to better forecast how climate change will impact the environment and marine ecosystems on Earth. Researchers at PMMH Lab, ESPCI, CNRS, PSL University, Sorbonne Université and Université Paris Cité recently performed a new laboratory experiment aimed at shedding new light on this phenomenon. The results of this experiment, published in Physical Review Letters, suggest that the stress at which ice sheets break depends on the length of the underlying waves.

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