What does my cocktail have in common with glaciology?

Interesting cocktail with a giant ball of ice!

Whilst on holiday I was served this rather cool cocktail with a giant ice ball plugging a hole between the upper and lower chambers of the glass. So – of course – we took a video of it as it melted and we wondered whether there was a link with glaciology. Well there is! I asked glaciologist Scott Watson for his thoughts.

In the video, you can see that the ice begins to melt slowly at first, but once you get a small channel seeping through then t...