E-Mail IMAGE: A researcher (Leigh Stearns, The University of Kansas) adjusts a time lapse camera monitoring the front of Kangilliup Sermia (also known as Rink Isbrae), an outlet glacier in Greenland. A... view more Credit: Tim Bartholomaus The jagged terrain of Greenland's mountains is protecting some of the island's outlet glaciers from warm coastal waters, according to a team of researchers that included scientists from The University of Texas at Austin and NASA. Outlet glaciers protrude from the ice sheet into the sea, where surging ocean heat can speed up the loss of ice, making the glaciers thinner and raising sea levels. The scientists found that steep slopes in the bedrock under the ice form stabilizing areas the researchers termed "knickpoints" that prevent coastal thinning from reaching further inland.