Bottom-up : That's how ice forms in Antarctica - Times of India

OSLO: Some of Antarctica's ice sheet is formed by water refreezing from below not just by snow falling on top as was traditionally thought, findings showed on Thursday that will help scientists project effects of climate change.

Experts are seeking to understand the frozen continent since even a small thaw could swamp low-lying coastal areas and cities. Antarctica contains enough ice to raise world sea levels by about 57metres if it ever all melted. A six-nation study of jagged mountain range as high as the Alps that is buried under ice in East Antarctica found almost a quarter of ice sheet in the area was formed by a thaw and refreeze of water from underneath . Deep below the surface, ice flowing into submerged valleys often melted because of high pressure and heat from earth below and refroze when it was forced up again.

The findings confound a traditional view that ice sheets are almost solely formed by snow that lands on top, gets compressed into ice and flows slowly towards the oceans because of gravity