ice

A reconfigurable spin iceSpin ices, magnetic systems in which local spins respect the so-called ice rules, can occur in natural materials or be engineered in patterned arrays. King et al. used superconducting qubits to implement a…

A deadly cascadeA catastrophic landslide in Uttarakhand state in India on February 2021 damaged two hydropower plants, and more than 200 people were killed or are missing. Shugar et al. describe the cascade of events that led to this…

SummaryHigh on Greenland's ice sheet, particle astrophysicists are this week drilling boreholes in a search for the cosmic accelerators responsible for the universe's most energetic particles. By placing hundreds of radio antennas on and…

Ice goes bendyOne well known characteristic of ice is that it fractures instead of bending when strained. This characteristic is caused by the inevitable defects introduced into the ice structure during solidification. Xu et al. show that…

SummaryMarine margins, where ice sheets flow from land into the ocean, become exposed to environmental conditions and internally generated forces markedly different from those governing the flow of ice further inland. Prior research has…

Cliff collapseTall ice cliffs at the edges of ice sheets can collapse under their own weight in spectacular fashion, a process that can considerably hasten ice sheet mass loss. Bassis et al. used a dynamic ice model to demonstrate that this…