These fascinating entities of physics and weather are unfortunately escalating the decay of glaciers and climate change.

Underwater ‘storms’ are eating away at the Doomsday Glacier. It could have big impacts on global sea level rise | CNN Excerpt below:

The underwater storms they focused on — called submesoscales — are fast-changing, swirling ocean eddies.

“Think of these like little water twirls that spin around really fast, kind of like when you stir water in a cup,” said study author Mattia Poinelli, an Earth system science researcher at the University of California, Irvine and a NASA research affiliate. However, in the ocean, these eddies are not small — they can span up to around 6 miles.

They form when warm and cold water meet. To return to the cup analogy, it’s the same principle as when you pour milk into a cup of coffee and see tiny swirls spinning

Original journal article / study:

Ocean submesoscales as drivers of submarine melting within Antarctic ice cavities | Nature Geoscience