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November 12, 2015
Why Glaciers are not like Swiss Cheese
There have been a number of quotes indicating that glaciers/ice sheets are like swiss cheese. Swiss cheese has holes and has little structural strength, and is often used as a metaphor to imply weakness. In the ablation zone of many glaciers there are holes, moulins, that are typically 0.5-10 m wide. A moulin is a narrow, tubular conduit in a glacier that provides a pathway for water to travel from …