The story goes — warmer temperatures, more surface melting, more meltwater draining through moulins to glacier base, lubricating glacier bed, reducing friction, increasing velocity, and finally raising sea level. (realclimate.org)
Moving inland from the edge of the WAIS, the glacier bed plummets farther below sea level and the ice gets thicker. (discovermagazine.com)
Once the margins failed, there was nothing at the glacier bed to hold it back, just water - soaked clay. (earthobservatory.nasa.gov)