East Antarctic Ice Sheet Melting At Alarming Rate
Posted on: Monday, 23 November 2009, 06:15 CST
The East Antarctic ice sheet, once unaltered by global warming, has swiftly melted since 2006 and could increase sea levels, says a new study.
Available in a recent issue of Nature Geoscience, the same research indicates that the West Antarctic ice sheet is also melting rapidly.
Scientists are concerned that higher global temperatures could cause a quick collapse of West Antarctica, which has enough frozen water to raise the global ocean watermark by 16 feet.
In 2007 the UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) calculated that the sea levels would increase 7.2 to 23.2 inches by 2100, but the approximation did not take into account the possible influence of melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
190 nations are meeting in Copenhagen in December to arrange a global climate plan to fight greenhouse gases.
University of Texas professor Jianli Chen and colleagues reviewed seven years of information over ocean-ice sheet interaction in Antarctica. The information was gathered by the twin GRACE satellites, which identify mass flows in the ocean and polar areas by calculating shifts in Earth's gravity field.
The researchers discovered that West Antarctica poured approximately 132 billion tons of ice into the ocean annually. They also noted that East Antarctica is also melting, specifically in coastal areas.
"Acceleration of ice loss in recent years over the entire continent is thus indicated," the authors wrote. "Antarctica may soon be contributing significantly more to global sea level rise."
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Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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User Comments (6)
| 6. |
Posted by nobodysaysBOO on 11/23/2009, 11:42 This is NOT science,this is propaganda again! |
| 5. |
Posted by D.King on 11/23/2009, 10:22 The US bailed Europe out of: WWI (my grandfather) WWII (my father) The Cold War (my father and me) Bosnia (me) So, we’re going to drive our SUVs, eat meat and heat and cool our homes. You EUers fight amongst yourselves, for your self imposed scarcities. |
| 4. |
Posted by Ghost on 11/23/2009, 10:21 Funny, because researchers last year were saying that Antarctica as a whole had more ice than ever before recorded, yet somehow that didn't make the press, because it didn't fit with the whole "global warming" bit. Oh, excuse me, it isn't "global warming" anymore because they can't prove a temperature increase. Now it's "climate change" |
| 3. |
Posted by P cohen on 11/23/2009, 10:08 These are natural cycles, we have data only from 1970, that is too less to determine nature cycles period. The whole climate change is a political agenda, to implement carbon taxation. |
| 2. |
Posted by THE END OF DAYS on 11/23/2009, 08:53 We are doomed and I am loving it. |
| 1. |
Posted by Tommy on 11/23/2009, 07:13 Copenhagen is being billed as one of the most critically important summits of the century, and it is vital that it succeed. However, if China and America continue to fail to reach an agreement on commitment then there is no hope for preventative climate change action. http://tommygilchrist.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/why-copenhagen-will-fail/ |
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