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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…)

Massive Crevasses and Bendable Ice affect Stability of Antarctic Ice Shelf, CU-Boulder Research Team Finds

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2012Environmentantarctic peninsula, boulder, breakup, catastrophic collapse, colorado, crevasses, daniel mcgrath, floating, glacial inflows, glacial outlets, harihar rajaram, ice shelf, ice type, icebergs, konrad steffen, larsen a, larsen b, larsen c, last century, massachusetts, meltwater, seawater, sheet of ice, southern hemisphere, summer, suture zones, ted scambos, tom weston, university, waleed abdalati, warmer climate, weddell sea

Gaping crevasses that penetrate upward from the bottom of the largest remaining ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula make it more susceptible to collapse, according to University of Colorado Boulder researchers who spent the last four Southern Hemisphere summers studying the massive floating sheet of ice that covers an area twice the size of Massachusetts.

But the scientists also found that ribbons running through the Larsen C Ice Shelf – made up of a mixture of ice types that, together, are more prone to bending than breaking – make the shelf more resilient than it otherwise would be. (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…)

Greenland’s Glaciers Double in Speed

By Guest PostFebruary 22, 2011Environmentairborne radar systems, antarctic ice sheet, Arctic, basins and mountains, Cambridge University, glacier, glaciologist, global climate system, global ocean, global sea level change, greenland, greenland ice sheet, humankind, icebergs, icy world, julian dowdeswell, polar regions, radar systems, sea level, seas, sub glacial mountains, temperatures

The contribution of Greenland to global sea level change and the mapping of previously unknown basins and mountains beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet are highlighted in a new film released by Cambridge University this morning.

The work of glaciologist Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Director of Cambridge University’s Scott Polar Research Institute, is the focus of This Icy World, the latest film in the University’s Cambridge Ideas series. (more…)

Predicting Sea Level Rise: Understanding How Icebergs Form Could Lead to Better Forecasts

By Guest PostNovember 23, 2010Environmentamery ice shelf, Antarctica, climate warms, east antarctica statistical methodology, glaciers, ice sheets, ice-retreat process, iceberg calving, icebergs, jeremy bassis, larsen b ice shelf, NASA, predictions, sea-level rise, shrinking ice sheets

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— In an effort to understand how fast sea level could rise as the climate warms, a University of Michigan researcher has developed a new theory to describe how icebergs detach from ice sheets and glaciers.

This process of “iceberg calving” isn’t well understood. While scientists believe it currently accounts for roughly half of the mass lost in shrinking ice sheets, current sea level rise models don’t take changes in iceberg calving into account in their predictions, says Jeremy Bassis, an assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences. (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…)

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