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AnonymousInactiveGreenland’s Glaciers Are Melting Faster
ST.
LOUIS (Feb.06) – Greenland’s glaciers are dumping twice as much ice
into the Atlantic Ocean now as five years ago because glaciers are
moving and melting more quickly, researchers said on Thursday.
This
could mean oceans will rise even faster than forecast, and rising
surface air temperatures appear to be to blame, the researchers report
in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.
“This change, combined
with increased melting, suggests that existing estimates of future sea
level rise are too low,” Julian Dowdeswell of the Scott Polar Research
Institute at Britain’s Cambridge University wrote in a commentary.
“At
1.7 million square km [656,000 square miles], up to 3 km [nearly two
miles] thick and a little smaller than Mexico, the Greenland Ice Sheet
would raise global sea level by about 7 meters [22 feet] if it melted
completely.”
The study did not explore what is causing the rising
air temperatures in Greenland, but most scientists agree that human
activity, notably the burning of fossil fuels, is playing an important
role in global warming.
Eric Rignot of NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology and Pannir
Kanagaratnam of the University of Kansas used satellite data to track
the movement of Greenland’s glaciers, which slide slowly down to the
sea and deposit ice.
They calculated that Greenland contributes about 0.02 inch to the annual 0.1 inch rise in global sea levels.
Since
1996, southeast Greenland’s outlet glaciers have been flowing more
quickly and since 2000 glaciers farther north have also sped up.Rignot
and Kanagaratnam found that ice loss due to glacier flow has increased
from 12 cubic miles of ice loss per year in 1996 to 36 cubic miles of
ice loss per year in 2005.”It takes a long time to build and melt an
ice sheet, but glaciers can react quickly to temperature changes,”
Rignot said in a statement.He said the models now used to predict how
much ice Greenland will lose, and what effect that will have on sea
levels, may underestimate the outcome.Rising air temperatures are
clearly a factor, the researchers told a meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes
Science.Over the last 20 years, the air temperature in southeast
Greenland has risen by 5.4 degrees F.Warmer air lubricates the bottoms
of glaciers, helping them slide faster.
“Climate warming can work in
different ways, but generally speaking, if you warm up the ice sheet,
the glacier will flow faster,” said Rignot.And it may melt even more
quickly in years to come, he added.”The southern half of Greenland is
reacting to what we think is climate warming. The northern half is
waiting, but I don’t think it’s going to take long,” Rignot said. -
AuthorFebruary 17, 2006 at 10:04 AM
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