Ice Loss In West Antarctica Is Speeding Up

An anonymous reader writes: A new study just published on Antarctic ice loss by Christopher Harig and Frederik Simons of Princeton confirm West Antarctica is losing mass fast. The study used satellite measurements to determine the rate of mass loss. The lead author of the study told The Guardian: "It is very important that we continue long term monitoring of how mass changes in ice sheets. For West Antarctica in particular this is important because of how it is thought to be more unstable, where the feedbacks can cause more and more ice loss from the land over time. These strong regional accelerations that we see are very robustly measured and imply that Antarctica may become a major contributor to sea level rise in the near future. This increase in the mass loss rate, in ten years, accelerations like that show that things are beginning to change on human time scales."

Comments

Volcano?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a volcano under West Antarctica that might have something to do with it.

Re: Volcano?

[jovius]

Meanwhile, the humanity is adding as much CO2 as 135 volcanoes would, in a year. And the next year, and the nextâ¦

source: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

Earths feedback mechanisms cannot cope with that geologically relatively short impulse. The extra energy that's being captured is showing in all of the sensors on earth and in space also.

Try to find a mention of that on the website.

Re:Volcano?

[serviscope_minor]

Jesus H. Christ how does this loopy paranoid bullshit get modded up?

The chemistry behind ozone depletion is well understood and actually testable in a lab. Secondly the people who descovered it were meterologists, not the chemists who find and patent new inert propellants.

Re:Great. Let's sit here and wait for the next wav

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.livescience.com/46194-volcanoes-melt-antarctic-glaciers.html

Re:Great. Let's sit here and wait for the next wav

[itzly]

"If the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt, this would contribute 4.8 m (16 ft) to global sea level."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...

Obviously, even if this were to happen, it would take a considerable amount of time.

Re:Zzzzzz

[itzly]

It takes decades for a "heat signal" to penetrate 1-2 miles of aerated ice

That's not the only mechanism. A bigger and faster mechanism is the melting of the ice shelves from the bottom up because they are sitting in warmer water. The ice shelves are currently slowing down the glacial transport. Without that, the glaciers would be going much faster.

Re: Great. Let's sit here and wait for the next wa

[Layzej]

they said would not be there 25 years ago

Here is what the IPCC actually said of sea ice 25 years ago: On the basis of current simulations, it is not possible to make reliable quantitative estimates or the changes in the sea ice extent and depth It should be noted that the models considered here neglect ice dynamics, leads, salinity effects, and changes in ocean circulation.

Don't suffer from single study syndrome. Look for a consensus rather than focusing on one paper or another. The IPCC is a great resource for understanding the consensus.

actuallT record-breaking larger than it has ever been before in recorded history

I think you are confusing sea ice area with continental ice volume. As the volume melts it deposits fresh water near the surface. Fresh water freezes more readily than salt water. So you can have the sea ice area increase even while overall volume decreases.

Re:Great. Let's sit here and wait for the next wav

[itzly]

Now, how do you propose to raise the tens of trillions of dollars necessary to build this massive solar-hydrogen power generation and distribution infrastructure you're talking about?

The same way you would have to do when oil runs out.