Technologies

Greenland’s Huge Meltwater Waterfalls Generate Massive Hydropower

New research finds that the huge ice sheet is melting both from the top and bottom.

The surface of the Greenland ice sheet is melting, creating a network of ephemeral rivers and waterfalls that scientists say produces more hydropower than the collective output of the 10 largest hydroelectric stations on the planet.

It’s part of a brutal feedback loop brought on by climate change that could hasten the rise in sea levels around the world.

In summer, an increasing amount of the frozen surface melts, forming lakes and streams that rapidly make their way to the bottom of the ice sheet — traveling downward as much as a full kilometer — by rushing through cracks and large fractures. An international team of researchers set out to measure how much energy was created by this process.

«There’s a lot of gravitational energy stored in the water that forms on the surface, and when it falls, the energy has to go somewhere,» Cambridge University professor Poul Christoffersen explained in a statement.

Unfortunately, that energy is being converted to heat at the base of the ice sheet, leading to high rates of melting both on the top and bottom of the sheet.

The team used a kind of radar to measure the amount of melting and found rates often just as high on the bottom of the ice sheet as on the sun-splashed surface.

«The heat generated by the falling water is melting the ice from the bottom up, and the melt rate we are reporting is completely unprecedented,» Christoffersen said.

The study is published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers calculate up to 82 million cubic meters of water fell from the surface to the base of Store Glacier on the Greenland Ice Sheet each day during the summer of 2014. They estimate that water falling to the bottom of the sheet produces more hydropower during summer than the world’s top 10 hydroelectric generating stations combined.

«Given what we are witnessing at the high latitudes in terms of climate change, this form of hydropower could easily double or triple, and we’re still not even including these numbers when we estimate the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level rise,» Christoffersen said.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is already the largest single contributor to global sea level rise.

It’s too bad there’s no practical way to capture this hidden hydropower, as all that clean energy could help reduce the emissions that are actually accelerating its creation.

Technologies

Universal’s UK Theme Park Will Teach Brits Like Me How to Have High-Octane Fun

Commentary: Finally, something thrilling worth getting excited about is coming to our dank, gray shores.

Baking shows, sarcasm, passive aggression, pubs — there are some things the British people do really well. But are we any good at having fun? It’s a question I’ve asked myself over the years as I’ve traveled around the world visiting many vibrant and exciting places. And honestly, while we know how to throw a jolly nice picnic on a mild summer’s day, I’m not sure we really understand the underlying mechanics of having a high-octane good time.

Perhaps that was why, when Disney decided in the early ’90s to set up a theme park in Europe, it chose France rather than the UK as the better location. It was a blow to my country, which boasts only a handful of theme parks, few of which are worth mentioning, and none of which I’d recommend making a special trip from abroad to visit. Just look, for example, at this account of a pre-opening day visit to the new Epic Universe theme park in Florida by my colleagues Scott Stein and Bridget Carey. No Brit would ever dare to dream up anything so extravagant and thrilling.

But all that is set to change with Wednesday’s announcement that Universal has chosen the UK as the location for a planned theme park. The park, due to open in 2031, will be based in Bedford, England — a part of the country with little else to recommend it other than its proximity to London — on a 476-acre complex, which Universal is already looking to expand. It will be the first time Universal has opened a theme park outside of the US or Asia, and will likely attract significant tourism and jobs to the area.

Perhaps most important, it will give people like me, who grew up envying friends who vacationed in Orlando, a real taste of what we’ve been missing in terms of thrills and the kind of intensely detailed theming that only Disney and Universal parks are able to offer. Bear in mind that the current best roller coaster on this wet and windy island, Nemesis at Alton Towers, is now more than 30 years old — we are more than overdue a fresh opportunity to be hurled around at speed.

The Universal Park is such a big deal to the UK that even our Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, put out a statement about it. «Today we closed the deal on a multibillion-pound investment that will see Bedford home to one of the biggest entertainment parks in Europe, firmly putting the county on the global stage,» he said.

His announcement focused on the economic benefits of the park, but Universal’s decision has sparked a real buzz across the country from people who are mainly very excited about the possibility to ride genuinely good coasters.

Universal has yet to say what attractions the park will feature, but it seems inevitable that like Universal Studios in Orlando, there will be some version of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, given that the entire story is set in the UK. For the sake of my husband, who is the world’s biggest fan of Men in Black and will never go to Florida, I hope Universal also decides to transport the Alien Attack ride across the sea.

It would be fun, too, if there was something unique at the park — just as Disneyland Paris, for a few years at least, was the only Disney park to boast the excellent Ratatouille ride. Some might appreciate specific nods to British culture beyond Harry Potter, but I say keep it American.

Our own attempts to build «British» theme parks have been based on less-than-thrilling concepts such as Camelot (RIP) and Gulliver’s Travels. No, bring us the Simpsons and the Minions and any other yellow-hued cartoon characters you have over there. There’s not much we can do about the weather but we need to learn to have fun the American way, with snacks bigger than our meals and boundless opportunities to buy merch that we don’t need simply because we were swayed by the good vibes of our big day out. I can’t wait.

A Photo Tour Inside Epic Universe

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, April 10

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 10.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword could be tricky. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Smoke tendrils
Answer: WISPS

6A clue: Undo, as «I do’s»
Answer: ANNUL

7A clue: What’s the point of church?
Answer: SPIRE

8A clue: Adorable flab
Answer: PUDGE

9A clue: Like some prices and precipices
Answer: STEEP

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Apple orchard pests
Answer: WASPS

2D clue: Two cents, so to speak
Answer: INPUT

3D clue: Like a sarcastic dig
Answer: SNIDE

4D clue: Get rid of
Answer: PURGE

5D clue: Succumb to a lullaby
Answer: SLEEP

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.