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Tim Elam works on deploying the Ice Diver, which if successful will melt its way through the ice with electrical heating. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Could what’s happening with the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet create a domino effect and push the entire climate system out of balance? Tipping Points host Bernice Notenboom is on a mission to discover whether or not the recent changes in climate around the world is affecting the Greenland Ice Sheet, and if the Sheet itself is approaching a dangerous tipping point.

The moulins are a huge and obscure factor in Greenland’s journey to a dangerous tipping point. moulins are large channels of fresh melt water flowing across the ice sheet, and have the potential to destabilize entire climate systems. Glacial streams of melt water accumulate in moulins. According to Dr. Alan Hubbard from Aberystwyth University’s Centre for Glaciology, the water gets to the base of the ice sheet and kind of hydraulically lifts the ice sheet up, up to a meter, at any one time when that water accumulates creating a large impact on the sheet itself.

For more on moulins and the other factors threatening the Greenland Ice Sheet tune in to Tipping Points, Saturday 9/8c only on The Weather Channel.

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