Scientists have to follow the data, even if it doesn't make sense.This is the situation that researchers recently found themselves in when analyzing the flow of rivers in the Canadian High Arctic.Scientists from Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia in Canada were investigating river erosion.Their starting point was the idea that frozen ground slows erosion, as the ice packed inside it was thought to act like glue, keeping the surrounding sediment locked in place.However, field recordings have suggested something else is going on: That new river channels in the Arctic can form surprisingly quickly, suggesting erosion may actually outpace that in temperate landscapes.A glass flume was used in the lab to stand in for Arctic rivers. (Simon Fraser University)In controlled lab experiments, the researchers found that, to their surprise, this was the case.Sediment erosion was around 10 times faster than what would be expected with unfrozen ground – findings that defied what they thought they knew about river erosion. "We literally expected to see the opposite of what we ended up seeing," says environmental scientist Jonas Eschenfelder from Simon Fraser University."We re-ran the experiments a whole bunch of times until my supervisor actually believed the results."In the lab, the team built a glass-sided 'flume' tilted at an angle, measuring 120 centimeters (47.2 inches) in length and 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) in width. Inside the channel, glass beads stood in for river gravel.When testing frozen water over both frozen and unfrozen sediment beds, the surprising erosion results appeared. What had previously been strange anomalies in the field were being replicated over and over again.