Latest Ice sheets Stories

PASADENA, Calif., June 13, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent's ice shelf mass loss, a new study by NASA and university researchers has found. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Scientists have studied the rates of basal melt, or the melting of the ice shelves from underneath, of individual ice shelves, the floating extensions of glaciers that empty into the...

Alaska’s melting glaciers remain one of the largest contributors to the world’s rising sea levels, say two University of Alaska Fairbanks geophysicists. UAF Geophysical Institute researchers Anthony Arendt and Regine Hock joined 14 scientists from 10 countries who combined data from field measurements and satellites to get the most complete global picture to date of glacier mass losses and their contribution to rising sea levels. “Sea level change is a pressing societal...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Scientists have known for some time that melting glaciers are contributing to the global sea-level rise. However, the amount being contributed by each region of the planet has never before been calculated with the accuracy of a new study led by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Clark University. Ninety-nine percent of Earth’s land ice is locked up in the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets. The study,...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new study of glaciers worldwide using observations from two NASA satellites has helped resolve differences in estimates of how fast glaciers are disappearing and contributing to sea level rise. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The new research found glaciers outside of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, repositories of 1 percent of all land ice, lost an average of 571 trillion pounds (259...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online As the debate over climate change continues, so does the publication of studies that support or challenge the notion that human activity is the main driver of rising temperatures. According to a new study in Nature Geoscience, the dramatic thinning of glaciers in Western Antarctica is due to natural variation, and cannot be attributed directly to carbon emissions. "If we could look back at this region of Antarctica in the 1940s...

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A growing number of studies have pegged global warming and climate change as a cause of sea-ice decline in recent decades. However, a newly published study in the journal Nature Geoscience is showing a vastly different scenario. According to researchers at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), ocean warming may actually be driving sea-ice expansion in the Antarctic. While sea ice at the North Pole has shrunk...

Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The oft-cliché idea behind the naming of Iceland and Greenland claims their names were derived in an attempt to fool would be sailing marauders, attracting them to the desolate but more hospitably named Greenland, leaving the citizens of Iceland to live upon their slightly more lush island without threat of invasion. In fact, Erik the Red, it is believed, gave the moniker to attract settlers to the ice covered island just to the...

Peter Suciu for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The fact sea levels could rise if the polar ice caps melt has been long established, but according to new research some regions could see greater increases than others. According to research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, sophisticated computer modeling of sea-level rise over the coming century suggests parts of the Pacific could see the highest rates of rise while some polar regions will actually experience...

Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The uncertainty of future sea level rise is getting a little clearer thanks to research being conducted by a team comprised of scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the Alfred Wegner Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the University of Tromsø. Their study, entitled ‘Grounding-line retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet from inner Pine Island Bay’, is being published in this month’s edition of...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The West Antarctica ice sheet is melting faster than expected. An international group of oceanographers led by the University of Gothenburg has published new observations in the journal Nature Geoscience that may improve our ability to predict future changes in ice sheet mass. The water levels of the oceans would be affected globally by a reduction of the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland, making it problematic that...