Oil and Natural Gas in the Arctic
February 13, 2012 |
The area above the Arctic Circle is underlain by sedimentary basins and continental shelves that hold enormous oil and natural gas resources. The United States Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic contains approximately 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered conventional oil resources and about 30 percent of its undiscovered conventional natural gas resources. |
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Melting Land Ice and Sea Level Rise
February 8, 2012 | NASA
“In the first comprehensive satellite study of its kind, a University of Colorado at Boulder-led team used NASA data to calculate how much Earth’s melting land ice is adding to global sea level rise.” Quoted from the NASA press release. |
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Bacterial Living Under Glaciers
January 22, 2012 | Penn State Live
“The bottom of a glacier is not the most hospitable place on Earth, but at least two types of bacteria happily live there.” Quoted from the Penn State press release. |
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Greenland Lost 430 Gigatons of Ice in 2011
December 12, 2011 | NOAA
“According to the Arctic Report Card, ice mass loss from Greenland in 2011 was about 430 gigatons—enough ice to raise global sea level by just over 1 millimeter.” Quoted from NASA’s Earth Observatory.
* Data for 2011 is available before the end of the calendar year because the melt season is over. |
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Greenland’s 2011 Melt Season
December 11, 2011 | NASA Earth Observatory
Depending on the data analysis approach, 2011 was either the third most extensive or the sixth most extensive melting year since satellite records began in 1979.
* Data for 2011 is available before the end of the calendar year because the melt season is over. |
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Should the US Ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty?
November 8, 2011 | Wall Street Journal
The Law of the Sea Treaty is an agreement that allocates the seafloor resources under the Arctic Ocean. A debate in the Wall Street Journal has arguments in favor and against.
Related article: Who Owns the Arctic? |
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Runaway Melting on the Greenland Ice Sheet
October 25, 2011 | City College of New York
Researchers at City College of New York have discovered that the Greenland ice sheet can experience cycles of extreme melting even when temperatures are not hitting record highs. |
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The Enormous Ilulissat Glacier, Greenland
September 28, 2011 | Extreme Ice Survey
The Ilulissat Glacier in West Greenland is enormous. It is thought to deposit more ice into the ocean than any other glacier in the Northern Hemisphere.
GL-05 Ilulissat Narrated from Extreme Ice Survey on Vimeo. |
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Petermann Glacier Before-After-Photos 2010-2011
September 2, 2011 | Byrd Polar Research Center
The Byrd Polar Research Center has a collection of low altitude aerial photos of the Petermann Glacier before-and-after the 2010 ice calving. |
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Studying Ethane Levels to Learn About Greenhouse Gas Emissions
August 17, 2011 | National Science Foundation
“Recent data from NSF-funded research in both Greenland and Antarctica demonstrate that fossil-fuel related emissions of both methane and ethane, two of the most abundant hydrocarbons in the atmosphere, declined at the end of the twentieth century.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation news release. |
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Polar Climate Change and Ecological Change
August 16, 2011 | Penn State University
“These changes, though different at each pole, could be significant in their effects on not only the local environment, but also globally. While the central part of the Arctic is composed of ice over water, northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia and Greenland all have landmasses within the Arctic Circle.” Quoted from the Penn State University news release. |
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More Sea Level Rise from Antarctica and Less from Greenland
August 5, 2011 | University of Wisconsin-Madison
“During the last prolonged warm spell on Earth, the oceans were at least four meters — and possibly as much as 6.5 meters, or about 20 feet — higher than they are now. [...] Mainly from melting ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica, and many scientists, including UW-Madison geoscience assistant professor Anders Carlson, have expected that Greenland was the main culprit.” Quoted from the University of Wisconsin-Madison news release.
Related: Sea Level Rise Map |
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Small Amounts of Subsurface Warming Can Trigger Rapid Ice Shelf Collapse
August 3, 2011 | Oregon State University
“An analysis of prehistoric “Heinrich events” that happened many thousands of years ago, creating mass discharges of icebergs into the North Atlantic Ocean, make it clear that very small amounts of subsurface warming of water can trigger a rapid collapse of ice shelves.” Quoted from the Oregon State University news release. |
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Petermann Ice Island
July 24, 2011 | NASA Earth Observatory
In August 2010 a large “ice island” about four times the size of Manhattan broke from the Petermann Glacier on the northwestern coast of Greenland. Now the “Petermann Ice Island” is about the size of Manhattan and drifting off the coast of Labrador.
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Satellite Image of the Arctic
July 24, 2011 | Earth Observatory
NASA’s Earth Observatory has an interesting “satellite image of the Arctic”. It is actually a mosaic image that shows the entire Arctic area in full daylight with very few clouds. It is a 6000 x 6000 pixel graphic. |
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Largest Arctic Iceberg in 50 Years
July 8, 2011 | MSNBC
A 97 square-mile chunk of ice broke off of a Greenland glacier about a year ago and was recently spotted by satellites off the coast of Labrador, Canada. This is the largest Arctic iceberg in 50 years.
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Glacier Loss in Greenland Could Fill Lake Erie
May 25, 2011 | Ohio State University
“In the last decade, two of the largest three glaciers draining [Greenland] have lost enough ice that, if melted, could have filled Lake Erie.” Quoted from Ohio State University research release. |
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You Know About the 100-Year Flood… How About the 10,000-Year Iceberg?
April 19, 2011 | Hibernia.ca
If you are building an oil platform such as the Hibernia (the world’s largest) off the coast of St. John’s Newfoundland you need to worry about icebergs. The platform was built on a 600,000-ton gravity-base structure shaped to resist icebergs. “It can withstand contact with a six million tonne iceberg, estimated to be the largest that can drift into that water depth and only expected once in 10,000 years, with repairable damage.” Quoted from the Hibernia.ca website. |
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