November 3, 2015
By AFP
...This time, researchers at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (click here) pointed to the long-term impacts of the crucial Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica, which they said "has most likely been destabilized."
While previous studies "examined the short-term future evolution of this region, here we take the next step and simulate the long-term evolution of the whole West Antarctic Ice Sheet," the authors said in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They used computer models to project the effects of 60 more years of melting at the current rate.
This "would drive the West Antarctic Ice sheet past a critical threshold beyond which a complete, long-term disintegration would occur."
In other words, "the entire marine ice sheet will discharge into the ocean, causing a global sea-level rise of about three meters," the authors wrote....
When a repeating pattern turns up in scientific research that means it is validated and there is no question. There is no more theory, it is proven.
May 12, 2014
The "Unstable" West Antarctic Ice Sheet: A Primer (click here)
The new finding that the eventual loss of a major section of West Antarctica's ice sheet "appears unstoppable" was not completely unexpected by scientists who study this area. The study, led by glaciologist Eric Rignot at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and the University of California, Irvine, follows decades of research and theory suggesting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is inherently vulnerable to change.
Antarctica is so harsh and remote that scientists only began true investigation of its ice sheet in the 1950s. It didn't take long for the verdict on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to come in. "Unstable," wrote Ohio State University glaciologist John Mercer in 1968. It was identified then and remains today the single largest threat of rapid sea level rise.
Why is West Antarctica's ice sheet considered "unstable"?
The defining characteristic of West Antarctica is that the majority of the ice sheet is "grounded" on a bed that lies below sea level.
In his 1968 paper, Mercer called the West Antarctic Ice Sheet a "uniquely vulnerable and unstable body of ice." Mercer based his statement on geologic evidence that West Antarctica’s ice had changed considerably many, many millennia ago at times when the ice sheets of East Antarctica and Greenland had not...
By AFP
...This time, researchers at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (click here) pointed to the long-term impacts of the crucial Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica, which they said "has most likely been destabilized."
While previous studies "examined the short-term future evolution of this region, here we take the next step and simulate the long-term evolution of the whole West Antarctic Ice Sheet," the authors said in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They used computer models to project the effects of 60 more years of melting at the current rate.
This "would drive the West Antarctic Ice sheet past a critical threshold beyond which a complete, long-term disintegration would occur."
In other words, "the entire marine ice sheet will discharge into the ocean, causing a global sea-level rise of about three meters," the authors wrote....
When a repeating pattern turns up in scientific research that means it is validated and there is no question. There is no more theory, it is proven.
May 12, 2014The "Unstable" West Antarctic Ice Sheet: A Primer (click here)
The new finding that the eventual loss of a major section of West Antarctica's ice sheet "appears unstoppable" was not completely unexpected by scientists who study this area. The study, led by glaciologist Eric Rignot at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and the University of California, Irvine, follows decades of research and theory suggesting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is inherently vulnerable to change.
Antarctica is so harsh and remote that scientists only began true investigation of its ice sheet in the 1950s. It didn't take long for the verdict on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to come in. "Unstable," wrote Ohio State University glaciologist John Mercer in 1968. It was identified then and remains today the single largest threat of rapid sea level rise.
Why is West Antarctica's ice sheet considered "unstable"?
The defining characteristic of West Antarctica is that the majority of the ice sheet is "grounded" on a bed that lies below sea level.
In his 1968 paper, Mercer called the West Antarctic Ice Sheet a "uniquely vulnerable and unstable body of ice." Mercer based his statement on geologic evidence that West Antarctica’s ice had changed considerably many, many millennia ago at times when the ice sheets of East Antarctica and Greenland had not...
