🕒 Last updated on July 31, 2025
In a stunning discovery, scientists have found evidence of a massive flood that erupted from beneath Greenland’s ice sheet in 2014. This hidden burst of water forced its way through nearly 300 feet of solid ice, creating a deep crater and surprising experts around the world.
A Hidden Lake Erupts from Beneath the Ice
The flood came from a subglacial lake—a body of water trapped under the thick ice sheet. Until recently, scientists didn’t even know such lakes existed in Greenland. This event is the first time such a massive release of water from under the ice has ever been documented in the country.
Over just 10 days, about 90 billion liters—or 24 billion gallons—of water rushed out with extreme force. That’s equal to the amount of water flowing over Niagara Falls at its peak for nine straight hours. The explosion of water was so powerful that it blasted a hole 85 meters deep and nearly 2 square kilometers wide into the ice sheet.
Scientists initially thought there was a problem with their satellite data. But after careful checks, it became clear: this was not a mistake. It was a rare, dramatic natural event that had been completely hidden from the world for years.
A Giant Crater and Shattered Ice Landscape
The flood left behind clear signs of destruction. Deep under the surface of northern Greenland, the water pressure had built up in a subglacial lake until it finally erupted. The water didn’t just carve out a deep crater in the ice sheet. It also broke apart a huge area of ice downstream.
Large blocks of ice, each as tall as an eight-story building—around 25 meters or 82 feet high—were pushed out of place. The violent surge created a landscape of torn and scattered ice chunks. The damaged area was about twice the size of Central Park in New York City.
This flood came from a meltwater lake located uphill, and when the water escaped, it surged through the bottom of the ice sheet. It punched its way up and out, something scientists had not seen before in Greenland.
The discovery challenges what scientists thought they knew about how water moves through the ice sheet. Earlier, it was believed that meltwater from the surface slowly made its way down to the base and then out into the ocean. But this event shows that hidden lakes under the ice can suddenly burst and cause massive floods on their own.
Shocking Satellite Data Reveals the Truth
The discovery was made possible using satellite data from both NASA and the European Space Agency. A mix of satellites—ICESat, ICEsat-2, Landsat-8, Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and CryoSat-2—captured detailed images of the event, even though it happened in 2014.
Using this information, scientists created 3D models of the area. These models showed how the flood had occurred and how it had shaped the ice. They saw the size of the crater, the height of the ice blocks, and how far the water had traveled.
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What shocked researchers the most was that this happened in a place where models predicted the ice sheet was frozen solid at the bottom. The discovery proves that there is more going on beneath Greenland’s ice than previously believed.
Even though the event took place more than ten years ago, it went unnoticed until now. That’s because the flood happened beneath the ice and didn’t leave marks visible from the surface. Only advanced satellite technology could uncover the hidden changes.
This discovery opens the door to many new questions. But for now, it stands as a remarkable example of the raw and surprising power that nature holds—even in the cold, quiet heart of Greenland’s ice sheet.