Climate: Why disinformation is so persistent

Melting of glaciers, rising sea levels, extreme heat waves: the consequences of climate change are more visible than ever, and the scientific community has confirmed that humans are responsible. Yet studies show that a third of the population still doubts or disputes these facts. The cause is disinformation spread by certain vested interests. To try and prevent this phenomenon, a team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has developed and tested six psychological interventions on nearly 7,000 participants from twelve countries. The research, published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, highlights the extremely persuasive nature of disinformation and the need to strengthen our efforts to combat it.

Fighting disinformation about climate change is a major challenge for society.

Although scientific consensus on human responsibility -- reaffirmed by the sixth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- has been in place for decades, a third of the population still doubts or disputes it. This phenomenon can be explained by the disinformation spread by certain companies and lobbies over the last 50 years.

''For instance, these messages can take the form of an unfounded questioning of the scientific consensus or an overestimation of the socio-financial burden of climate policies,'' explains Tobia Spampatti, a PhD Student and Teaching and Research Assistant in the Consumer Decision and Sustainable Behavior Lab (CDSB Lab) at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences and at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences of the UNIGE.

Many psychological factors

This phenomenon weakens the support of a part of the population for climate policies.

To combat this, Tobia Spampatti and researchers from the UNIGE developed a theoretical framework to describe the formation and updating of (anti)scientific information.

This framework, built on previous theoretical takes on the psychology of misinformation (Philippe Mueller et al. and Ulrich Ecker et al. in 2022), takes into account the source of the message, its content, its recipients, and the psychological factors that can influence their processing.

This theoretical framework aims to identify the entry points for disinformation to access a person's ''psyche'', and can be used to intervene and block, or encourage, people to accept information.

''As individuals, we do not process scientific messages as neutral receivers of information, but by weighing them up against our prior beliefs, desired outcomes, emotional ties and socio-cultural and ideological backgrounds.

Depending on the configuration of these psychological factors, anti-scientific beliefs can be amplified and become resistant to correction,'' explains Tobia Spampatti, first author of the study.

Six preventive strategies put to the test

On this basis, the researchers developed six psychological intervention strategies aimed at preventing climate disinformation from affecting people's climate-related beliefs and behaviors.

They were tested on 6,816 participants in twelve different countries.

Each strategy was linked to a particular theme (scientific consensus, trust in climate scientists, transparent communication, moralizing climate action, accuracy, positive emotions towards climate action). The participants were divided into eight groups: six subjected to one of these strategies, one to disinformation without prevention, and a control group.

The ''trust in climate scientists'' group, for example, received verified information demonstrating the credibility of IPCC scientists.

The "transparent communication" group, meanwhile, was presented with information on both the advantages and the disadvantages of climate mitigation actions.

Each group was then exposed to twenty pieces of false or biased information, ten on climate science and ten on climate policy.

The UNIGE scientists then measured their impact after these preventive interventions by asking the participants about their feelings regarding climate mitigation actions.

Low preventive effect

''We found that the protective effect of our strategies is small and disappears after the second exposure to disinformation.

Climate disinformation used in this study has a negative influence on people's belief in climate change and their sustainable behaviour'', says Tobias Brosch, Associate Professor in the CDSB Lab at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences and at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences in the UNIGE, and final author of the study.

''Disinformation is therefore extremely persuasive, seemingly more so than scientific information.

Only the 'accuracy' group, who were asked to think in depth about the accuracy of the information they encountered online, showed a slight advantage''.

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Vanishing glaciers threaten alpine biodiversity

With glaciers melting at unprecedented rates due to climate change, invertebrates that live in the cold meltwater rivers of the European Alps will face widespread habitat loss, warn researchers.

Many of the species are likely to become restricted to cold habitats that will only persist higher in the mountains, and these areas are also likely to see pressures from the skiing and tourism industries or from the development of hydroelectric plants.

The research study -- led jointly by the University of Leeds and University of Essex -- calls on conservationists to consider new measures to protect aquatic biodiversity.

Invertebrates -- key role in ecosystems

The invertebrates, which include stoneflies, midges and flatworms, play a key role in nutrient cycling and organic matter transfer to fish, amphibians, birds and mammals in the wider Alpine ecosystem.

Using glacier, landscape and biodiversity mapping data collected across the Alps, scientists from across Europe simulated how key invertebrate populations across the mountain range are likely to change between now and 2100 because of climate change.

As the climate warms, the modelling predicted the invertebrate species would seek out colder conditions in the highest parts of the mountain range. In the future, these colder areas are also likely to be prioritised for skiing or tourism or the development of hydropower plants.

Lee Brown, Professor of Aquatic Science at the University of Leeds who co-led the research, said: "Conservationists need to be thinking about how protected area designations must evolve to take into account the effects of climate change.

"It may be that some species will have to be moved to refuge areas if we want to safeguard their survival as many of them are not strong fliers so they cannot disperse easily through the mountains."

Alpine climate is changing rapidly

The research, involving a collaboration between nine European research institutions, brought together data on invertebrate species distribution in the Alps, an area that covers more than 34,000 square kilometres, and mapped it alongside expected changes to glaciers and river flows.

There was sufficient data to model what was likely to happen to 19 invertebrate species, mainly aquatic insects, that live in the cold-water regions of the Alps.

Dr Jonathan Carrivick, from the School of Geography at Leeds who co-led the research, said: "We have quantified that as glaciers melt and retreat, the rivers running through the Alps will experience major changes in their water source contributions.

"In the short term, some will carry more water and some new tributary rivers will form, but over several decades from now -- most rivers will become drier, flow slower and become more stable, and there could even have periods in a year when there is no water flow. Additionally, most water in Alpine rivers will also be warmer in the future."

Losers and winners

By the turn of the century, the modelling predicts that most of the species would have experienced "consistent losses" of habitat.

Those hardest hit are expected to be the non-biting midges, Diamesa latitarsis grp., D. steinboecki, and D. bertrami; the stonefly, Rhabdiopteryx alpina; and mayfly, Rhithrogena nivata.

However, several species are expected to benefit from the habitat changes, including the flatworm, Crenobia alpina and the flat headed may fly, Rhithrogena loyolaea.

Other species would find refuge in new locations. The scientists predict the stonefly Dictyogenus alpinus and the caddisfly Drusus discolor will be able to survive in the Rhone valley in southeast France while other species will be lost from the rivers that flow into the Danube basin.

Conservation

Writing in the paper, the researchers describe the "substantial work" that is necessary to protect the biodiversity in rivers that are being fed by retreating glaciers. The locations where glaciers still exist late in the 21st century are likely to be prioritised for hydropower dam construction and ski resort development.

Dr Martin Wilkes, from the University of Essex and who co-led the research, said: "The losses we predict for Alpine biodiversity by the end of this century relate to just one of several possible climate change scenarios.

"Decisive action by world leaders to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could limit the losses. On the other hand, inaction could mean that the losses happen sooner than we predict."

Understanding how invertebrate populations respond to climate changes is key to understanding how biodiversity in high mountainous areas can be affected, and the techniques developed in the study could be applied to other mountain environments.

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A once-stable glacier in Greenland is now rapidly disappearing

As climate change causes ocean temperatures to rise, one of Greenland's previously most stable glaciers is now retreating at an unprecedented rate, according to a new study.

Led by researchers at The Ohio State University, a team found that between 2018 and 2021, Steenstrup Glacier in Greenland has retreated about 5 miles, thinned about 20%, doubled in the amount of ice it discharges into the ocean, and quadrupled in velocity. According to the study, such a rapid change is so extraordinary among Greenland ice formations that it now places Steenstrup in the top 10% of glaciers that contribute to the entire region's total ice discharge.

The study was published today in Nature Communications.

The Steenstrup Glacier is part of The Greenland Ice Sheet, a body of ice that covers nearly 80% of the world's largest island, which is also the single largest contributor to global sea rise from the cryosphere, the portion of Earth's ecosystem that includes all of its frozen water. While the region plays a crucial part in balancing the global climate system, the area is steadily shrinking as it sheds hundreds of billions of tons of ice each year because of global warming.

Over the past few decades, much of this loss has been attributed to accelerated ice discharge from tidewater glaciers, glaciers that make contact with the ocean. Many glaciologists believe that this recent uptick in ice discharge can be explained by the intrusion of warming waters that are being swept from the Atlantic into Greenlandic fjords -- critical oceanic gateways that can impact the stability of local glaciers and the health of polar ecosystems.

The research team aimed to test that theory by examining a glacier in the southeastern region of Greenland called K.I.V Steenstrups Nordre Bræ, an entity more colloquially known as the Steenstrup Glacier.

"Up until 2016, there was nothing to suggest Steenstrup was in any way interesting," said Thomas Chudley, lead author of the study, who completed this work as a research associate at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. Chudley is now a Leverhulme research fellow at Durham University in the UK.

"There were plenty of other glaciers in Greenland that had retreated dramatically since the 1990s and increased their contribution to sea level rise, but this really wasn't one of them."

As far as scientists knew, Steenstrup had not only been stable for decades but was generally insensitive to the rising temperatures that had destabilized so many other regional glaciers, likely because of its isolated position in shallow waters.

It wasn't until Chudley and his colleagues compiled observational and modeling data from previous remote sensing analyses on the glacier that the team realized Steenstrup was likely experiencing melt due to anomalies in deeper Atlantic water.

"Our current working hypothesis is that ocean temperatures have forced this retreat," Chudley said. "The fact that the glacier's velocity has quadrupled in just a few years opens up new questions about how fast large ice masses can really respond to climate change."

In recent years, glaciologists have been able to use satellite data to estimate the potential volume of glacial ice stored at the poles and how it might affect current sea levels. For instance, if the Greenland Ice Sheet were to melt, Earth's sea levels could rise by nearly 25 feet. In contrast, if the ice sheet in Antarctica were to fall apart, it's possible that oceans would rise by nearly 200 feet, Chudley said.

While Greenland and Antarctica would take centuries to collapse completely, the global cryosphere has the potential to cause sea levels to rise about six feet this century if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet undergoes collapse.

As around 10% of the planet's population lives in low-lying coastal zones, Chudley said that any significant rise in sea level can cause increased risk to low-lying islands and coastal communities from storm surges and tropical cyclones.

In the United States, sea level rise poses a particular risk to coastal cities in places like Florida or Louisiana, Chudley said. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's too late to stop such a future from happening. If climate policies evolve rapidly, humans might have a chance at halting the worst of sea level rise, Chudley said.

Overall, Steenstrup's unique behavior reveals that even long-term stable glaciers are susceptible to sudden and rapid retreat as warmer waters begin to intrude and influence new environments.

While the research says continued scientific observation of the Steenstrup Glacier should be a priority, it concludes other similar glaciers also deserve attention because of their potential to retreat due to warming waters.

Understanding more about these interactions could provide key insight into how glaciers thrive in other locations around the world and even become an indicator of how these environments might change in the future.

"What's happening in Greenland right now is kind of the canary in the coal mine of what might happen in West Antarctica over the next few centuries," Chudley said. "So it would be great to be able to get into the fjord with real on-the-ground observations and see how and why Steenstrup has changed."

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Faster in the Past: New seafloor images of West Antarctic Ice Sheet upend understanding of Thwaites Glacier retreat

The Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica -- about the size of Florida -- has been an elephant in the room for scientists trying to make global sea level rise predictions.

This massive ice stream is already in a phase of fast retreat (a "collapse" when viewed on geological timescales) leading to widespread concern about exactly how much, or how fast, it may give up its ice to the ocean.

The potential impact of Thwaites' retreat is spine-chilling: a total loss of the glacier and surrounding icy basins could raise sea level from three to 10 feet.

A new study in Nature Geoscience led by marine geophysicist Alastair Graham at the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science adds cause for concern. For the first time, scientists mapped in high-resolution a critical area of the seafloor in front of the glacier that gives them a window into how fast Thwaites retreated and moved in the past.

The stunning imagery shows geologic features that are new to science, and also provides a kind of crystal ball to see into Thwaites' future. In people and ice sheets alike, past behavior is key to understanding future behavior.

The team documented more than 160 parallel ridges that were created, like a footprint, as the glacier's leading edge retreated and bobbed up and down with the daily tides.

"It's as if you are looking at a tide gauge on the seafloor," Graham said. "It really blows my mind how beautiful the data are."

Beauty aside, what's alarming is that the rate of Thwaites' retreat that scientists have documented more recently are small compared to the fastest rates of change in its past, said Graham.

To understand Thwaites' past retreat, the team analyzed the rib-like formations submerged 700 meters (just under half a mile) beneath the polar ocean and factored in the tidal cycle for the region, as predicted by computer models, to show that one rib must have been formed every single day.

At some point in the last 200 years, over a duration of less than six months, the front of the glacier lost contact with a seabed ridge and retreated at a rate of more than 2.1 kilometers per year (1.3 miles per year) -- twice the rate documented using satellites between 2011 and 2019.

"Our results suggest that pulses of very rapid retreat have occurred at Thwaites Glacier in the last two centuries, and possibly as recently as the mid-20th Century," Graham said.

"Thwaites is really holding on today by its fingernails, and we should expect to see big changes over small timescales in the future-even from one year to the next-once the glacier retreats beyond a shallow ridge in its bed," said marine geophysicist and study co-author Robert Larter from the British Antarctic Survey.

To collect the imagery and supporting geophysical data, the team, which included scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden, launched a state-of-the-art orange robotic vehicle loaded with imaging sensors called 'Rán'from the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer during an expedition in 2019.

Rán, operated by scientists at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, embarked on a 20-hour mission that was as risky as it was serendipitous, Graham said. It mapped an area of the seabed in front of the glacier about the size of Houston -- and did so in extreme conditions during an unusual summer notable for its lack of sea ice.

This allowed scientists to access the glacier front for the first time in history.

"This was a pioneering study of the ocean floor, made possible by recent technological advancements in autonomous ocean mapping and a bold decision by the Wallenberg foundation to invest into this research infrastructure," said Anna Wåhlin, a physical oceanographer from the University of Gothenburg who deployed Rán at Thwaites. "The images Ran collected give us vital insights into the processes happening at the critical junction between the glacier and the ocean today."

"It was truly a once in a lifetime mission," said Graham, who said the team would like to sample the seabed sediments directly so they can more accurately date the ridge-like features.

"But the ice closed in on us pretty quickly and we had to leave before we could do that on this expedition," he said.

While many questions remain, one thing's for sure: It used to be that scientists thought of the Antarctic ice sheets as sluggish and slow to respond, but that's simply not true, said Graham.

"Just a small kick to Thwaites could lead to a big response," he said.

According to the United Nations, roughly 40 percent of the human population lives within 60 miles of the coast.

"This study is part of a cross-disciplinary collective effort to understand the Thwaites Glacier system better," said Tom Frazer, dean of the USF College of Marine Science, "and just because it's out of sight, we can't have Thwaites out of mind. This study is an important step forward in providing essential information to inform global planning efforts."

Read more at Science Daily

A historical perspective on glacial retreat

Glaciers are melting rapidly -- and since the 2000s, scientists have been recording and researching changes in their volume more and more precisely. In contrast, hardly anything is known about how glaciers changed during the 20th century. Although there are a handful of studies that reconstruct the surface topography of individual glaciers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these partially show large discrepancies with existing models when it comes to estimating the corresponding glacier volume.

In a study that has just been published in the scientific journal The Cryosphere, a team of researchers from ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL have reconstructed the topography of all Swiss glaciers in 1931. Based on these reconstructions and comparisons with data from the 2000s, the researchers conclude that the glacier volume halved between 1931 and 2016.

Old data -- new insights

For their reconstruction, the glaciologists turned to what is known as stereophotogrammetry, a technique that can be used to determine the nature, shape and position of any object on the basis of image pairs. This technique has long been in use in Switzerland: from the First World War until the end of the 1940s, engineers from the Swiss National Survey -- today swisstopo -- surveyed large swathes of the Swiss Alps from some 7,000 locations using phototheodolites (a combination of a camera and an angle measuring device).

The resulting glass plate images, which swisstopo has digitised and enriched with metadata from field books, are now available to the public through the TerrA image archive. The researchers used the material from this image archive, which covers about 86 percent of the glacierised area of Switzerland. They analysed around 21,700 photographs taken between 1916 and 1947. "Based on these photos, we determined the glacier surface topography. If we know the surface topography of a glacier at two different points in time, we can calculate the difference in ice volume," explains lead author Erik Schytt Mannerfelt of ETH Zurich and WSL. Since the images were taken in different years, the researchers decided to use the mean year 1931 as a reference and reconstructed the surface topography of all glaciers for that year.

Not all glaciers are under observation

To date, the picture of glacier changes during the last century has been largely based on a combination of long-term glacier observations, measurements performed in the field and aerial photographs taken after 1960. From this information, glaciologists reconstructed the mass balance of individual glaciers -- that is, the difference between mass gain and mass loss.

One way to determine a glacier's mass balance is through on-site measurements. But only a few Swiss glaciers -- the Claridenfirn, for example -- have been the subject of regular measurements. This means that long time series stretching over several decades are very rare. In addition, older mass balance series can accumulate errors from earlier, inaccurate or uncertain measurements, which can lead to large distortions.

Not all glaciers are equally affected

The study further shows that not all glaciers are losing mass at the same rate. The extent to which they have decreased in volume depends primarily on three factors: first, the altitude at which a glacier is located; second, how flat the glacier snout is; and third, the amount of debris on the glacier.

So have the glaciers just been receding every year? No. While the climate in the 20th century was generally unfavourable for glaciers, in the 1920s and 1980s there was sporadic glacier mass growth, with individual glaciers advancing. "While there may have been growth over short-term periods, it's important to keep the big picture in mind. Our comparison between the years 1931 and 2016 clearly shows that there was significant glacial retreat during this period," says Daniel Farinotti, Professor of Glaciology at ETH Zurich and WSL, and co-author of the study. What's more, the total glacier volume is decreasing at an ever faster rate, as confirmed by the glacier monitoring network GLAMOS, which is managed by ETH Zurich. By way of comparison, while glaciers lost half their volume between 1931 and 2016, they lost a further 12 percent between 2016 and 2021 -- i.e. in just six years.

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New study calculates retreat of glacier edges in Alaska's Kenai Fjords National Park

As glaciers worldwide retreat due to climate change, managers of national parks need to know what's on the horizon to prepare for the future. A new study from the University of Washington and the National Park Service measures 38 years of change for glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park, a stunning jewel about two hours south of Anchorage.

The study, published Aug. 5 in The Journal of Glaciology, finds that 13 of the 19 glaciers show substantial retreat, four are relatively stable, and two have advanced. It also finds trends in which glacier types are disappearing fastest. The nearly 670,000-acre park hosts various glaciers: some terminate in the ocean, others in lakes or on land.

"These glaciers are a big draw for tourism in the park -- they're one of the main things that people come to see," said lead author Taryn Black, a UW doctoral student in Earth and space sciences. "Park managers had some information from satellite images, aerial photos, and repeat photography but they wanted a more complete understanding of changes over time."

The data show that lake-terminating glaciers, which include the popular Bear Glacier and Pedersen Glacier, are retreating fastest. Bear Glacier retreated by 5 kilometers (3 miles) between 1984 to 2021, and Pedersen Glacier retreated by 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) during that period.

"In Alaska, much glacier retreat is being driven by climate change," said Black. "These glaciers are at really low elevation. It's possibly causing them to get more rain in the winter rather than snow in addition to warming temperatures, which is consistent with other climate studies in this region."

One surprising finding was that Holgate Glacier, which as a tidewater glacier terminates at the ocean, has advanced in recent years. Local boat operators had reported seeing newly exposed land near the glacier's edge in 2020. But the new analysis shows that the overall glacier has been advancing for about 5 years, and appears to go through regular cycles of advance and retreat. The edges of most of the other tidewater glaciers were relatively stable over the study period.

The six land-terminating glaciers all showed intermediate response, with most retreating, especially in summer months, but at a slower rate than the lake-terminating glaciers. The only other glacier that advanced during the study period was land-terminating Paguna Glacier, which is covered in rock debris from a landslide caused by the 1964 Alaska earthquake. This debris insulates the glacier surface from melting.

To make the calculations, Black used 38 years of images captured by satellites in fall and spring to trace outlines for each of the 19 glaciers -- a total of about 600 outlines. She visually inspected each image to map the position of the glacier's edge. Black used a similar approach in recent research to calculate the rate of retreat of marine-terminating glaciers in west Greenland.

The new data for Alaska provide a baseline to study how climate change -- including warmer air temperatures, as well as changes in both the types and amount of precipitation -- will continue to affect these glaciers. All the glaciers in the study are considered maritime glaciers because they are subject to the warm, wet maritime climate.

The study has immediate application for park managers. These numbers help to quantify the changes that have been occurring and will continue for the glaciers and their immediate environments.

"We can't manage our lands well if we don't understand the habitats and processes occurring on them," said co-author Deborah Kurtz at the U.S. National Park Service in Seward, Alaska.

As the park's Physical Science Program Manager, Kurtz is also interested in the changes to the surrounding river, lake and landscape ecosystems, and how to communicate those changes to the public.

"Interpretation and education are also an important part of the National Park Service mission," Kurtz said. "These data will allow us to provide scientists and visitors with more details of the changes occurring at each specific glacier, helping everyone to better understand and appreciate the rate of landscape change we are experiencing in this region."

Read more at Science Daily

Himalayan glaciers melting at 'exceptional rate'

The accelerating melting of the Himalayan glaciers threatens the water supply of millions of people in Asia, new research warns.

The study, led by the University of Leeds, concludes that over recent decades the Himalayan glaciers have lost ice ten times more quickly over the last few decades than on average since the last major glacier expansion 400-700 years ago, a period known as the Little Ice Age.

The study also reveals that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking far more rapidly than glaciers in other parts of the world -- a rate of loss the researchers describe as "exceptional."

The paper, which is published in Scientific Reports, made a reconstruction of the size and ice surfaces of 14,798 Himalayan glaciers during the Little Ice Age. The researchers calculate that the glaciers have lost around 40 per cent of their area -- shrinking from a peak of 28,000 km2 to around 19,600 km2 today.

During that period they have also lost between 390 km3 and 586 km3 of ice -- the equivalent of all the ice contained today in the central European Alps, the Caucasus, and Scandinavia combined. The water released through that melting has raised sea levels across the world by between 0.92 mm and 1.38 mm, the team calculates.

Dr Jonathan Carrivick, corresponding author and Deputy Head of the University of Leeds School of Geography, said: "Our findings clearly show that ice is now being lost from Himalayan glaciers at a rate that is at least ten times higher than the average rate over past centuries. This acceleration in the rate of loss has only emerged within the last few decades, and coincides with human-induced climate change."

The Himalayan mountain range is home to the world's third-largest amount of glacier ice, after Antarctica and the Arctic and is often referred to as 'the Third Pole'.

The acceleration of melting of Himalayan glaciers has significant implications for hundreds of millions of people who depend on Asia's major river systems for food and energy. These rivers include the Brahmaputra, Ganges and Indus.

The team used satellite images and digital elevation models to produce outlines of the glaciers' extent 400-700 years ago and to 'reconstruct' the ice surface. The satellite images revealed ridges that mark the former glacier boundaries and the researchers used the geometry of these ridges to estimate the former glacier extent and ice surface elevation. Comparing the glacier reconstruction to the glacier now, determined the volume and hence mass loss between the Little Ice Age and now.

The Himalayan glaciers are generally losing mass faster in the eastern regions -- taking in east Nepal and Bhutan north of the main divide. The study suggests this variation is probably due to differences in geographical features on the two sides of the mountain range and their interaction with the atmosphere -- resulting in different weather patterns.

Himalayan glaciers are also declining faster where they end in lakes, which have several warming effects, rather than where they end on land. The number and size of these lakes are increasing so continued acceleration in mass loss can be expected.

Similarly, glaciers which have significant amounts of natural debris upon their surfaces are also losing mass more quickly: they contributed around 46.5% of total volume loss despite making up only around 7.5% of the total number of glaciers.

Dr Carrivick said: "While we must act urgently to reduce and mitigate the impact of human-made climate change on the glaciers and meltwater-fed rivers, the modelling of that impact on glaciers must also take account of the role of factors such as lakes and debris."

Read more at Science Daily