“In this image, the wind is blowing from the snow-covered mountains to the Gulf of Alaska. The wind picked up fine sediment from the riverbank and carried it over the ocean. The pale brown plume of airborne dust contrasts sharply with the dark ocean beneath it.” Quoted from the Earth Observatory image release.
“New ground measurements made by the West Antarctic GPS Network project, composed of researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, The Ohio State University, and The University of Memphis, suggest the rate of ice loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet has been slightly overestimated.” Quoted from The University of Texas at Austin press release.
NASA will be looking for changes in Antarctic ice using a DC-8 equipped with instruments that are capable of “seeing” through the ice and collecting information about its thickness and the presence of water.
A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that glaciers in the Himalayas are melting rapidly and could be gone by 2035. The loss of meltwater from these glaciers will be an enormous problem for agricultural economies downstream.
Researchers are monitoring the speed of Greenland’s Helheim Glacier and other glaciers using GPS receivers. They don’t move at a steady rate of speed but instead accelerate abruptly and slow down. These dynamics of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have not been entered into sea level rise calculations.
In addition to melting, some glaciers are losing ice because they are accelerating. Summer meltwater can fall into the glacier through cracks in its surface and that water then lubricates sliding at the base of the ice.
USGS names Mount Rainier in Washington as the most dangerous volcano in the Cascade Range. Part of its danger is attributed to the 26 glaciers on the mountain which, if melted by an eruption, could produce enormous lahars.
Earth Observatory has an interesting satellite image of Mount Hood showing the mountain, glaciers and volcanic deposits produced by lahars and pyroclastic flows.
“Fifty years of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research on glacier change shows recent dramatic shrinkage of glaciers in three climatic regions of the United States. These long periods of record provide clues to the climate shifts that may be driving glacier change.” Quoted from the USGS release
The examination of sediment cores reveal that Arctic sea ice may have formed before Antarctic sea ice. This is an interesting find, as glaciation is thought to have occurred in the opposite order.
A study by French scientists reveals Cook Glacier on Kerguelen Island in the southern Indian Ocean has lost 20 percent of its volume in the last 40 years.
Paleoclimatologists at the University at Buffalo report on research that indicates…. “Modern glaciers, such as those making up the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, are capable of undergoing periods of rapid shrinkage or retreat.”
A study published in a recent issue of Geophysical Research Letters suggests that melting of the Greenland ice cap might cause sea levels along the coast of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States to rise more than sea levels in other areas because of changes in ocean currents.
A frozen bacterium which lived 120,000 years ago has been brought back to life. The microbe, named Herminiimonas glaciei, was found in Greenland’s glacial ice. It was revived over the course of almost a year at Pennsylvania State University.
Most glaciers worldwide are shrinking. However, Argentina’s Perito Moreno glacier is an exception. It has been nearly in equilibrium for over the past 100 years.
Eco Everest Expeditions is a group of people dedicated to preserving the Himalayas. They are raising awareness of how climate change and human behavior are taking a toll on the mountains.
Melting glaciers, a rising sea level, and other problems are threatening to ruin some popular tourist destinations. This is a list of places that may change dramatically in the near future, including the Maldive Islands, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Alps, and the Galapagos Islands.
Scientists have discovered a pocket of iron-breathing bacteria beneath the Taylor Glacier of Antarctica. The colony of organisms are thought to have been trapped beneath the glacier for 1.5 million years.
Researchers are finding dust in Antarctic ice that was swept by wind off of South American glaciers thousands of years ago. This dust is providing information about shifts in Earth’s climate over the past 70,000 years.
The Extreme Ice Survey has a collection of videos that document the retreat of numerous glaciers. These were produced by taking sequential photographs from the same location.
Portions of the boundary between Italy and Switzerland originally traced topographic features. Now that glaciers there are melting, the ground surface – rather than the ice surface – will be used as a new boundary.
USGS PODCAST: “Temperature change in the Arctic is happening at a greater rate than other places in the Northern Hemisphere, and this is expected to continue in the future. As a result, glacier and ice-sheet melting, sea-ice retreat, coastal erosion and sea level rise can be expected to continue. USGS scientist Joan Fitzpatrick discusses a new report on past climate variability and change in the Arctic.”
Earth Observatory has a pair of satellite images of Saginaw Bay, where strong winds drive ice onto the shore and piled it up against homes (video). One image was captured while the Bay was fully covered with ice and the other after the wind helped break up the ice cover.
Strong winds have pushed broken ice across the surface of Lake Huron and piled it up onto the shoreline. In one location near Linwood, Michigan the ice accumulation is 12 feet high and has damaged homes.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has an article titled “Getting to the Bottom of the Greenland Ice Sheet” on their website. There you can learn about the dye test that tracked water down through a half mile of ice and out to the ocean about 25 miles away.
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Hobart King
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