Scientist Uses Rubber Ducks to Track a Melting Glacier

The Scientific American reports that a scientist, Alberto Behar, has employed a small army of 90 rubber ducks to help him study the increased acceleration of Greenland's largest glacier, Jakobshavn.

The Jakobshavn glacier is one of the biggest in Iceland, producing up to 10% of the icebergs currently making up the Greenland ice sheet. It is also a fast mover and its speed has significantly increased in recent years, especially during the summer season.

Behar, and other NASA scientists, are out to prove why this acceleration rate jumps during the summer season, as concerns for sea level exist if the glacier continues at this rate. The glacier is already responsible for a 4% raise in sea level, and may cause an even more significant rise in this century.

The bath time toys were deployed into small holes known as moulins. Moulins are small, tube like structures inside the glacier. They carry water from the top of the glacier to the bottom, acting as a sort of glacier gasoline, accelerating the rate of speed. Since the moulins travel to an area of the glacier we can't see, Behar hopes the rubber ducks will travel with the glacier and eventually wash up on shores, thereby showing were the water ends up.

Each duck is labeled with "Reward" and an e-mail address in three languages, in the hopes that someone will find them and report their location.

In addition to the ducks, Behar employed a more conventional detection method, a small probe. The probe contains a GPS, a accelerometer (read: speed gauge), and sensors for pressure and temperature. The probe will provide location, speed and temperature information directly to the scientists.

No word yet from the ducks but Behar predicts they will reach land in remote locations and response times could take a while.

Deborah Zabarenko, "Can rubber ducks help track a melting glacier?",Scientific American

Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides, "NASA Deploys Rubber Ducks to Track Glacier Water",Wired Science