Melting at the base of Antarctica's Fimbul Ice Shelf is driven by warm surface water, as well as intermittent pulses of warmer, deeper water. Tore Hattermann of the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø and his co-workers collected temperature data in 2010 and 2011 from three moorings installed below the Fimbul shelf. Their data suggest that the shelf is affected by surface waters warmed by solar radiation and by freshwater run-off from sea-ice melt during the late summer and autumn. Eddies also bring warm water from the depths to underneath the ice shelf, often in pulses lasting less than 10 hours.
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