Most of it is carried to the coast by fast moving ice streams.

The alternating ice stream is more than just a curiosity.

"If other ice streams start to react in a similar way," he said, "then we will actually produce much more fresh water."

In places called ice streams, the flow can vary substantially.

Most ice streams have some water at their base, which lubricates the flow.

One Ross ice stream stopped flowing 150 years ago.

Because of this the ice stream position may have been stable for millions of years.

The ice stream ahead of him tumbled down a six-foot frozen fall.

It is considered possible that ice streams such as seen in Antarctica today could be responsible for these sequences.

As the ice stream accelerates it is also getting steeper.

Antarctica's ice streams are believed to be propelled by two mechanisms.

Roger crosses the ice stream in the meadow, crunches up the bank.

The interface between an ice stream and the ocean is a significant control of the rate of flow.

Narrow, fast moving sections of an ice sheet are called ice streams.

Ice streams are bounded on the sides by areas of slowly moving ice.

In Antarctica, many ice streams drain into large ice shelves.

Mills Glacier flows adjacently into the ice stream from the southwest side.

Friction created by the Earth's topography at the bottom of the glacier also slows the ice stream.

Melting of the ice shelves in turn causes the ice streams to speed up.

Isstrøm is the Danish word for ice stream.

Fits and Starts - What regulates the flow of huge ice streams?

"The ice streams are not well understood.

The ice stream reaches speeds of around 4 metres per day near the coast where it is heavily crevassed.

Ice streams are a type of glacier.

So that was one hell of a river, running off with about half a dozen other ice streams into the Ross ice shelf."