National Geographic quotes Mayewski in article about melting glaciers

National Geographic quoted Paul Mayewski, director of the Climate Change Institute and Distinguished Maine Professor in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine, in the article “What happens when the roof of the world melts?” Mayewski also was the leader of the 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Extreme Expedition to Mount Everest to study glaciers in Nepal. As glaciers melt and retreat, they scrape out part of the mountain that fills with water to form a lake, and leave ridges of debris called moraines that serve as natural dams, according to National Geographic. “The challenge with glacial lakes is that the risks are constantly changing,” he said. For example, many moraines holding back glacial lakes are naturally reinforced with chunks of ice that help stabilize the structure, and if the ice melts, the moraine could fall, the article states. “Figuring out how water flows through glaciers is not so trivial,” said Mayewski.