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Warm Ocean Causing Most Antarctic Ice Shelf Mass Loss

By Guest PostJune 15, 2013Environmentantarctic coastal waters, antarctic coastline, antarctic ice sheet, antarctic ice shelf, basal melt, bedrock, columbia university, east antarctica, eric rignot, filchner, glacier system, glaciers, global model, icebergs, mass loss, NASA, ocean circulation, operation icebridge, pole, rate, ronne, ross, stan jacobs, warm ocean, warming climate

PASADENA, Calif. — Ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent’s ice shelf mass loss, a new study by NASA and university researchers has found.

Scientists have studied the rates of basal melt, or the melting of the ice shelves from underneath, of individual ice shelves, the floating extensions of glaciers that empty into the sea. But this is the first comprehensive survey of all Antarctic ice shelves. The study found basal melt accounted for 55 percent of all Antarctic ice shelf mass loss from 2003 to 2008, an amount much higher than previously thought. (more…)

Increasing Speed of Greenland Glaciers Gives New Insight for Rising Sea Level

By Guest PostMay 6, 2012EnvironmentAntarctica, benjamin smith, climate change, Germany, glaciologist, greenland glaciers, ian howat, ian joughin, ice, icebergs, Japan, meltwater, ocean, rising sea level, scenario, sea-level rise, terrasar x satellite, twila moon, university of washington

Changes in the speed that ice travels in more than 200 outlet glaciers indicates that Greenland’s contribution to rising sea level in the 21^st century might be significantly less than the upper limits some scientists thought possible, a new study shows.

“So far, on average we’re seeing about a 30 percent speedup in 10 years,” said Twila Moon, a University of Washington doctoral student in Earth and space sciences and lead author of a paper documenting the observations published May 4 in Science. (more…)

Whether Glaciers Float May Affect Sea-Level Rise

By Guest PostJuly 19, 2010Environment, Sciencealaska, american geophysical union, calif, calving, columbia glacier, fabian walter, glaciers, glaciologist, icebergs, la jolla, scripps institution of oceanography, seafloor, seismometer, shad o'neel, tad pfeffer, usgs

WASHINGTON — Glaciers that detach from the seafloor and begin floating create larger icebergs than glaciers that stay on the sea floor, researchers have found. Floating glaciers also produce icebergs more erratically.

These new observations may help researchers better understand and predict iceberg production from glaciers and ice sheets, improving estimates of sea-level rise due to climate change.

(more…)

Tag Archives: icebergs

Warm Ocean Causing Most Antarctic Ice Shelf Mass Loss

Increasing Speed of Greenland Glaciers Gives New Insight for Rising Sea Level

Whether Glaciers Float May Affect Sea-Level Rise