NewScientist (23 May 2015, paywall) interviews Slawek Tulaczyk concerning how to stem the rising of sea levels:
Are you talking about geoengineering ice streams to control sea level rise?
Yes. When we talk about geoengineering we usually mean bringing down levels of carbon dioxide or controlling Earth’s reflectivity to sunlight. We haven’t yet considered putting the brakes on ice streams and glaciers, but we should be considering this possibility. Last month in Nature, new results corroborated previous evidence showing that the loss of mass from polar ice sheets accelerated in the last decade (DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2635). …How might we slow down the flow of ice?
One mechanism has to do with decreasing the amount of water at the base of the ice stream, to increase the friction between the base and the bedrock. Basically, we’d need to remove water by increasing drainage. Paradoxically, that may require something counter-intuitive, like drilling a hole from the top of the ice stream to the base and injecting water. You would have to work out how the sliding of the ice would respond to the injection of additional water, but in certain scenarios, the excess water would create a new, bigger channel beneath the ice, and this would help drain the water that’s already there faster than before. Typically when you drive water out from beneath a glacier, you are making it harder for ice to flow.There are other ways. One would be to prevent warming ocean waters from reaching the ice sheets.
What do you mean?
One reason why many ice streams and glaciers are flowing faster into the ocean is because warming waters are melting the floating ice shelves that surround them and normally act as buttresses. We think that warm water is channelled in through deep troughs in the continental shelf.And you are saying we can prevent this warm water from reaching the ice?
That’s right. You should be able to build submarine barriers. I’m not suggesting huge concrete structures; you can build something that has the right density to float 300 to 400 metres underwater. You attach some kind of barrier to the floats. The currents in these troughs are not very strong and the barriers don’t have to stop the flow of water, just slow it down. And you could have openings in them to enable life to pass through.
Over at Glacier Hub, Dan Kandy considers how to build new glaciers:
How do you make a glacier? You can transport tens of thousands of tons of ice from a place where retreat is fast to a pre-prepared location where retreat is slower; you can set up barriers around an existing ice field, increasing snow accumulation and transforming the area into a small glacier; or you can cover an existing one with a “geotextile” sheet or rocky debris to slow ablution. A minimum of three years is required for some of these methods, according to [Cedomir] Marangunic, [sic]
While stimulating the growth of new glaciers or slowing the retreat of established ones sounds great, project must simulate a “natural process” and avoid damage to local ecosystems, according to Marangunic, who claims this as a priority for his projects.
Also at Glacier Hub, Tsechu Dolma reports on a conference concerning the shrinking glaciers of Mt. Hood:
That method was created by Chewang Norphel, a civil engineer in Ladakh, India, who pioneered a way to “grow” glaciers in the Himalayas. A short film about Norphel’s mission to create small glaciers in Nepal, “Beyond Prayer”, shows the retired engineer describing his technique, which relies on the redirection of streams in the winter to cool areas, and constructing breaks to slow the flow of water. The water freezes along the mountain slope at regular intervals. During the winter, an ice sheet covers these frozen pools, creating small, artificial glaciers.
