University of Bristol The Earth’s carbon cycle is crucial in controlling the greenhouse gas content of our atmosphere, and ultimately our climate. Ice sheets which cover about 10 percent of our Earth’s land surface at present, were thought 20 years ago to be frozen wastelands, devoid of life and with supressed chemical weathering – irrelevant…
Institute for Basic Science New research, published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, has found that Antarctic icebergs can weaken and delay the effect of Global Warming in the Southern Hemisphere. Unabated Global Warming threatens the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet. Recent observations reveal a rapid thinning of the Pine Island and Thwaites…
From the University of Cambridge The subglacial lakes are the first to be identified in Greenland The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, discovered two subglacial lakes 800 metres below the Greenland Ice Sheet. The two lakes are each roughly 8-10 km2, and at one point may have been up to three times larger than…
From the University of California – Santa Barbara West Antarctica ice sheet existed 20 million years earlier than previously thought (Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– The results of research conducted by professors at UC Santa Barbara and colleagues mark the beginning of a new paradigm for our understanding of the history of Earth’s great global ice…
From the Helmholtz Association Greenland ice is melting — also from below Heat flow from the mantle contributes to the ice melt The Greenland ice sheet is melting from below, caused by a high heat flow from the mantle into the lithosphere. This influence is very variable spatially and has its origin in an exceptionally…
ARCTIC SUMMER SNOWSTORM By Joseph D’Aleo CCM Remember a year ago when few days of July ‘warmth’ with strong blocking over Greenland had the media abuzz over some melting? Last July a brief spell of temperatures in the mid 30s had caused some surface slush formation on top of the 1 to 1.5 mile thick…
Ice sheets are the largest potential source of future sea level rise – and they also possess the largest uncertainty over their future behaviour From the University of Bristol Continuous satellite monitoring of ice sheets needed to better predict sea-level rise The findings, published in Nature Geoscience, underscore the need for continuous satellite monitoring of…
Sobering graphics to scale: ice sheets 21,000 years ago versus today’s skylines.
There’s a paper (Shepherd et al) on ice loss and sea level rise that has been making the rounds in media (such as this article in Science Recorder, claiming it validates global warming) that is causing some stir, mainly because it has a powerfully written press release combined with a volume of researchers (47 scientists),…
From the University at Buffalo, new evidence that large ice sheets can grow/disappear quickly on decadal scales in response to regional temperature changes. A descriptive video follows. How fast can ice sheets respond to climate change? Scientists report that prehistoric glaciers reacted rapidly to a brief cold snap, providing a rare glimpse of glaciers’ response…