Shear-Zone Fractures Presage the Disintegration of Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf

Satellite imagery and GPS observations yielded two key insights:

1) fractures occurred in two stages: the initial propagation of long fractures parallel to ice flow, followed by smaller fractures perpendicular to ice flow.

2) the shear-zone disintegration causes upstream ice-flow speed to increase on the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf.