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Antarctic ice shelf collapse explained
Aberystwyth, Wales (UPI) Feb 7, 2007 Welsh scientists have discovered global warming was only one of many factors leading to the 2002 collapse of a major Antarctic ice shelf. Professor Neil Glasser of Aberystwyth University in Wales, who led the study while working as a Fulbright Scholar in the United States, said the findings refute the common belief that the collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in Antarctica was a sudden response to climate change. "Ice shelf collapse is not as simple as we first thought," said Glasser, who explained climate is just one factor and other atmospheric, oceanic and glaciological factors are involved. He said observations by glaciologists and numerical modeling by other scientists showed the ice shelf had been in distress for decades. The collapse of ice shelves indirectly contribute to a rise in sea level. Since ice shelves float on the ocean, they already displace the same volume of water, he said. "But when the ice shelves collapse, the glaciers that feed them speed up and get thinner, so they supply more ice to the oceans," he said. The study that included Ted Scambos of University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center appears in the Journal of Glaciology. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Beyond the Ice Age
Baffin Island Ice Caps Shrink By 50 Percent Since 1950S
Boulder CO (SPX) Jan 29, 2008A new University of Colorado at Boulder study has shown that ice caps on the northern plateau of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic have shrunk by more than 50 percent in the last half century as a result of warming, and are expected to disappear by the middle of the century. |
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