Born in Lorraine on a freezing winter night, storytelling has always inspired me, first through my grandmother’s tales and later Stephen King’s imagination. A physicist turned science communicator, I’ve collaborated with institutions like CEA, Total, Engie, and Futura. Today, I focus on unraveling Earth’s complex environmental and energy challenges, blending science with storytelling to illuminate solutions.
In West Antarctica, plenty of glaciers have responded to climate change in the way you might expect: they’re hurrying their flow into the ocean. On average, since 2005, these glaciers have sped up by around 51%. But not every glacier is following the script. Enter the glacier known as West Kohler. Unlike its sprinting neighbors, West Kohler has slowed its pace by about 10%. The unexpected culprit behind this slowdown? Its neighbor, East Kohler Glacier, according to researchers from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom.
East Kohler Glacier hasn’t just been casually picking up the pace. Its flow rate has shot up spectacularly—by about 560 meters (that’s roughly 1,837 feet) per year more in 2022 compared to 2005. This dramatic acceleration has led East Kohler to start absorbing ice from West Kohler. Heather L. Selley, a researcher at the University of Leeds, sums it up:
“In reality, what’s happening is the glacier flow is being redirected from one glacier to another. The accelerating glacier essentially ‘steals’ ice from its slowing neighbor.”
Researchers even have the receipts to prove it: A map shows the speed of glaciers in the studied region, documenting the redirection of flow between 2015 and 2022—from West Kohler to East Kohler—earning East Kohler the nickname ‘ice pirate.’ The change in flow direction is marked by three parallel arrows. © ESA – data: Selley et al., 2025, University of Leeds.
Glaciologists weren’t new to the idea of one glacier pilfering from another. But here’s the catch: they believed this kind of action only played out at a snail’s pace, over hundreds or even thousands of years. Cue a collective double-take. In the journal The Cryosphere, University of Leeds scientists report that less than 18 years of high-resolution satellite observations have been enough to reveal this surprisingly fast phenomenon. Their verdict?
“It’s a fascinating discovery.”
What’s driving this act of glacier piracy? The researchers have a shopping list of possible explanations:
However, they caution that more studies are needed to understand these shifting dynamics and what’s at their root. Getting a clearer picture of these changes is crucial—not just for scientific curiosity, but to sharpen predictions about the future of the ice sheet and its role in sea level rise.