Chiseling away
Current predictions of ice melt in the Arctic are probably way off. According to an updated model, glaciers in the icy north could be slipping into the sea up to 100 times faster than previously forecast
ed.
Too bad they couldn’t have been way off in the other direction. Arctic ice melting way more slowly than we thought! But no, always it’s faster.
Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) think they’ve figured out at least part of the problem.
Gaps in data meant that climate scientists have been plugging in observations from accessible glaciers to build models of how all glaciers melt.
But what’s happening to the Antarctic ice sheet amid rapid global warming is significantly different from what’s occurring to Arctic glaciers.
In Greenland, for example, recent observational research has found that warm ocean water in the nation’s fjords is chiseling away at parts of the floating ice sheet from underneath.
Not good news.
Santa Claus is going to have to move house.
Santa and his/her elves got eaten by starving Polar Bears long ago.
Yes. Yes, I am. Bah Humbug.
Models of Greenland have to account for the crowned shape – as the glacial cap melts, it has been accelerating toward the edges. One of the scary scenarios is a very large movement, some significant chunk of the Greenland ice cap simply sliding off in a much faster time frame than we think of glacial movement occurring in – or melting, for that matter.
Loss of glaciers and sea ice means less sunlight is reflected.
As glaciers grind over ground they free up mercury in rocks and 42 tonnes may be released from south-west Greenland ice sheet. Nature Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/s4a561-021-99753-w
New Scientist May 29 2021 p. 21
As the world warms and the Greenland ice sheet melts, its fresh cold water is expected to slow down a dominant conveyor belt of ocean currents: the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). An AMOC collapse would leave an excess of heat in the tropical South Atlantic, which would trigger a series of air-pressure changes that ultimately strengthen the Pacific trade winds.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01668-1
The good news is that Greenland will somewhat rebound with the loss of weight of the glacier which would decrease the increase in sea level.
“There’s a plan to save Greenland glacier” (New Scientist, Oct. 29 2022, p. 8) by constructing a physical barrier of heavy, premade concrete foundations to slow the ingress of relatively warm water at the base of the glacier which would take 30 years to complete and do nothing to slow surface melting by warmer atmosphere. Geoengineering on this scale is unlikely to materialise any time soon. A green revolution for the necessary reduction in fossil fuel use must continue. (Poul Christoff, U of Cambridge).
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