Whillans Ice Stream is one of about a half-dozen large, fast-moving
rivers of ice pouring from the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet into the
Ross Ice Shelf. The
ice stream is the subject of different glaciological studies, one of which is looking at
subglacial lakes that researchers believe may be speeding the movement of the ice as they periodically fill and drain. Other researchers funded by the
National Science Foundation, reported in the June 5, 2008 issue of the journal
Nature that, from seismological and GPS data, they discovered the Whillans Ice Stream releases two bursts of
seismic waves every day, each one equivalent to a
magnitude 7 earthquake. The data show that the river of ice moves about a half-meter within approximately 30 minutes, remains still for 12 hours, then moves another half-meter in phase with gravitational tides. Each time it moves, it emits seismic waves that are recorded at
seismographs around
Antarctica and even as far away as
Australia, a distance of more than 6,400 kilometers. In 2024, it was shown that the large slow seismic events on the ice stream cause the adjoining
Ross Ice Shelf to abruptly shift by up to 6 cm in the course of a few minutes as trapped seismic waves within the shelf propagate northward. In 2007, an active subglacial water system consisting of several interconnected subglacial lakes was discovered under Whillans Ice Stream using repeat-track data from the
ICESat satellite (Fricker and others, 2007). One of these active lakes, subglacial
Lake Whillans, is the subject of a major drilling program funded by the National Science Foundation (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access (WISSARD)) which successfully reached the lake on January 28, 2013. In January 2015, drilling near the
grounding line revealed a colony of fish, crustaceans, and jellyfish inhabiting the dark, frigid waters below the
ice shelf. Images taken with a remote camera showed fish and
amphipods. ==See also==