The Darwin Glacier feeds into the much larger Ross Ice Shelf. Over the transition between grounded and floating ice the influence of the tides increases. Today we distributed seven highly-sensitive tiltmeters across the grounding zone to measure the flexure due to oceanic tides. These movements are necessary to calibrate our space-borne observations back at our offices.

Quick fact:

Our tiltmeters can measure surface bending down to a thousandth of a degree. Holy cow !