# gst: apropos of slipping, the motion on a deformable ground under fast-moving sheets

<< Backed by experimental data from a laboratory machine that simulates the huge forces involved in glacier flow, glaciologists have written an equation that accounts for the motion of ice that rests on the soft, deformable ground underneath unusually fast-moving parts of ice sheets. >>

<< That equation - or "slip law" - is a tool that scientists can include in computer models of glacier movement over the deformable beds of mud, sand, pebbles, rocks and boulders under glaciers such as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, >> Neal Iverson

<< Models using the new slip law could better predict how quickly glaciers are sliding, how much ice they're sending to oceans and how that would affect sea-level rise. >>

Neal Iverson. Experiments lead to slip law for better forecasts of glacier speed, sea-level rise. Iowa State University. Apr 2, 2020.

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-04-law-glacier-sea-level.html

<< These observations should help to solve the long-standing problem of constructing a generalized slip law that combines the processes of hard-bedded sliding and bed deformation. >>

Lucas K. Zoet, Neal R. Iverson. A slip law for glaciers on deformable beds.  Science. Vol. 368, Issue 6486, pp. 76-78 doi: 10.1126/science.aaz1183.  Apr 3, 2020.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6486/76