09:30 PM
Report: Greenland shedding its ice-sheet as temps rise: "Xeni Jardin:
BoingBoing reader John Parres says,
There is a moment in 'An Inconvenient Truth' where Al Gore explains what
is spelled out in this article from today's LA Times. In Greenland
(and Antarctica) melting glaciers are forming pools (and small lakes)
on the surface. What wasn't anticipated or modeled is that this
meltwater is boring streams down *through* the glacier and forming a
layer of water at the bottom between the glacier and land... causing
the glacier to slip and break apart faster than imagined.
Here's a snip from that article:
In an influential paper published in Science, Zwally surmised that
the ice sheets had accelerated in response to warmer temperatures, as
summer meltwater lubricated the base of the ice sheet and allowed it
to slide faster toward the sea.
In a way no one had detected, the warm water made its way through
thousands of feet of ice to the bedrock — in weeks, not decades or
centuries.
So much water streamed beneath the ice that in high summer the entire
ice sheet near Swiss Camp briefly bulged 2 feet higher, like the crest
of a subterranean wave.
Link to LA Times story.
Reader comment: Alastor sez,
Al Gore DID talk about the problem of these lubricating pools of water forming between land and glacier in the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth'. I just thought I'd mention that.
(Via Boing Boing.)
No comments:
Post a Comment