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Greenland ice cap melting faster than thought: study

Scientist: 'Big Freeze' began in Canada
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (UPI) Nov 15, 2009 - A University of Saskatchewan scientist said a severe bout of global cooling deemed the "Big Freeze" began in Canada nearly 12,800 years ago. Geologist Bill Patterson said the collapse of a large ice wall at Lake Agassiz in Central Canada nearly 12,800 years ago seriously disrupted the Atlantic Ocean's circulation patterns, prompting a major cooling period for much of Europe, the Canwest News Service said Sunday. Patterson, the Saskatchewan Isotope Laboratory's director, said circulation pattern disruption was caused by the sudden addition of the lake's freshwater. He said by analyzing lake-bottom sediment from Ireland, his team of researchers was able to find evidence how temperatures in Europe plunged dramatically within a single season after the Lake Agassiz incident. "We've generated a higher resolution record that indicates that the event was quicker than previously thought," Patterson told Canwest, referring to the commonly-accepted stance that temperatures dropped during an entire decade. "We have been working in Ireland for 10 years and we know that we can find the right kind of sediment there," he added. "Ireland is located in a climatically sensitive area of the North Atlantic and should show major events."
by Staff Writers
 Washington (AFP) Nov 13, 2009
 Greenland's ice sheet has melted faster than previously thought, according to the results of a two-year study published by the US journal Science.

Scientists reported that warmer than usual summers accelerated ice loss to 273 cubic kilometers (65 cubic miles) of a year between 2006 and 2008, amounting to a 0.75 millimeter (0.02 inch) rise in global sea levels per year.

"It is clear from these results that mass loss from Greenland has been accelerating since the late 1990s and the underlying causes suggest this trend is likely to continue in the near future," said researcher Jonathan Bamber, one of the authors of the study, released Thursday.

The study analyzed satellite data using a new computer model.

"We have produced agreement between two totally independent estimates, giving us a lot of confidence in the numbers and our inferences about the processes," Bamber said.

Greenland's ice cap contains enough water to cause, if it became fluid, a global sea level rise of seven meters (23 feet).

According to the study, since 2000 the ice sheet has lost around 1500 cubic kilometers (360 cubic miles) of water, which amounts to an average global sea level rise of five millimeters (0.19 inches).

Researchers said that increased snowfall on the ice sheet has masked a melting increase since 1996, and the refreezing of meltwater also has moderated the effects of ice sheet loss.

Without these two moderating effects the study said the overall loss would have been double that observed since 1996.

In a landmark report in 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted oceans would rise by 18-59 centimeters (7.2 and 23.6 inches) by 2100.

The increase would depend on warming, estimated at between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees Celsius (1.98-11.52 degrees Fahrenheit) this century, which in turn depends on how much man-made greenhouse gases are poured into the atmosphere.

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ICE WORLD
Warming brings early demise to Bolivian glacier
 Chacaltaya, Bolivia (AFP) Nov 13, 2009
 Once home to the highest ski resort in the world and now reduced to a rocky mountainside, Bolivia's Chacaltaya range bears powerful witness to the precipitous melting of glaciers. The rusting remains of a ski lift now dominate what was once the highest ski-run in the world perched on the Chacaltaya glacier at some 5,300 meters (17,390 feet) high. Only a snowy ice cap of some 50 square ... read more






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