The Byrd Glacier in Antarctica creates a 100-mile-long, rock-floored ice stream. Pressure from glaciers and the ice shelf can force Antarctic water to flow uphill. (Photo: NASA)
This is not a riddle: Why would water run uphill in Antarctica?
According to researcher Robin Bell from Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, some Antarctic ice sheets sit two miles above rivers, squishing everything below them and squeezing water up the side of mountains — against gravity — for 60 to 70 miles. When the water gets to the top it freezes, joining the ice sheet on its slide down to the ocean.
How to make people like you, why you should lick rocks,* and what an awkward person is really thinking. Angela Duckworth (Grit author) is co-host; Mike Maughan (Qualtrics) is live fact-checker.
Angela Duckworth tastes iron pyrite — fool’s gold. (Photo: Mike Maughan)
*Licking iron pyrite (fool’s gold), as discussed in the episode, produces a small amount of sulfuric acid. Lick at your own risk!
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