Melting Glaciers, Sea-level Rise
July 27, 2010
When a glacier with its "toe in the water" thins, a larger fraction of its weight is supported by water and it slides faster and calves more ice into the ocean at the glacier terminus.
Ice loss from glaciers and ice caps is expected to cause more global sea rise during this century than the massive Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study. Researchers--primarily funded by NSF and NASA--concluded that glaciers and ice caps are currently contributing about 60 percent of the world's ice to the oceans and the rate has been markedly accelerating in the past decade.
Ice loss from glaciers and ice caps is expected to cause more global sea rise during this century than the massive Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study. Researchers--primarily funded by NSF and NASA--concluded that glaciers and ice caps are currently contributing about 60 percent of the world's ice to the oceans and the rate has been markedly accelerating in the past decade.
Topics:
Environment, Climate change, Glaciology, Physical geography, Sea level, Current sea level rise, Antarctic ice sheet, Glacier, Effects of global warming, Ice sheets, Oceanography, Geography, Earth
