Brad Lipovsky
February 28, 2024
80 mph speed record for glacier fracture helps reveal the physics of ice sheet collapse
![drawing of glacier partly above and partly below water](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/02/27141503/Antarctic-Illustration-150x150.jpg)
New research documents the fastest-known large-scale breakage along an Antarctic ice shelf. In 2012, a 6.5-mile crack formed in about 5 and a half minutes, showing that ice shelves can effectively shatter, though the speed of breakage is reduced by seawater rushing in. These results can help improve ice-sheet models and projections for future sea level rise.
August 17, 2022
New UW Photonic Sensing Facility will use fiber-optic cables for seismic sensing, glaciology and more
![jumble of yellow cables](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2022/08/17102946/FiberOpticCloseup-150x150.jpg)
A University of Washington pilot project is exploring the use of fiber-optic sensing for seismology, glaciology, and even urban monitoring. Funded in part with a $473,000 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, a nonprofit based in Vancouver, Washington, the new UW Photonic Sensing Facility will use photons traveling through a fiber-optic cable to detect ground motions as small as 1 nanometer.
January 26, 2022
Glaciers are squishy, holding slightly more ice than thought
![three people walking on glacier](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2022/01/25134230/Mt-Baker-Glacier-Survey_1160-cropped-150x150.jpg)
Though usually though of as a solid, glaciers are also slightly compressible, or squishy. This compression over the huge expanse of an ice sheet — like Antarctica or Greenland — makes the overall ice sheet more dense and lowers the surface by tens of feet compared to what would otherwise be expected.