Larsen C iceberg accelerates ahead of calving

By Martin O’Leary and Adrian Luckman 28 June 2017(Project MIDAS) – In another sign that the iceberg calving is imminent, the soon-to-be-iceberg part of Larsen C Ice Shelf has tripled in speed to more than ten meters per day between 24th and 27th June 2017. The iceberg remains attached to the ice shelf, but its […]

Widespread snowmelt detected in West Antarctica during unusually warm summer – “We can expect more major surface melt events”

By Pam Frost Gorder 15 June 2017 COLUMBUS, Ohio (OSU) – An area of West Antarctica more than twice the size of California partially melted in 2016 when warm winds forced by an especially strong El Niño blew over the continent, an international group of researchers has determined.In the June 15 issue of the journal […]

The Larsen C ice shelf collapse hammers home the reality of global warming

By John Abraham 12 June 2017 (The Guardian) – Very soon, a large portion of an ice shelf in Antarctica will break off and collapse into the ocean. The name of the ice shelf is Larsen C; it is a major extension from of the West Antarctic ice sheet, and its health has implications for […]

Massive crack in Antarctica ice shelf grows 11 miles in 6 days – 8 miles remain before Delaware-sized iceberg calves – “It will fundamentally change the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula”

By Doyle Rice 1 June 2017 (USA TODAY) – A massive crack in an Antarctic ice shelf grew by 11 miles in the past six days as one of the world’s biggest icebergs ever is poised to break off. The crack in the Larsen C ice shelf is now about 120 miles long, and only […]

NASA discovers a new mode of ice loss in Greenland – “Intense melting such as we saw in 2010 and 2012 is without precedent”

By Carol Rasmussen 25 May 2017(JPL) – A new NASA study finds that during Greenland’s hottest summers on record, 2010 and 2012, the ice in Rink Glacier on the island’s west coast didn’t just melt faster than usual, it slid through the glacier’s interior in a gigantic wave, like a warmed freezer pop sliding out […]

Miles of Antarctic ice collapsing into the sea – “I don’t think the biblical deluge is just a fairy tale”

By Justin Gillis 18 May 2017 (The New York Times) – We went to Antarctica to understand how changes to its vast ice sheet might affect the world. Flowing lines on these maps show how the ice is moving. Ice sheets flow downhill, seemingly in slow motion. Mountains funnel the ice into glaciers. And ice […]

Water is streaming across Antarctica – New survey finds liquid flow more widespread than thought

19 April 2017 (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) – In the first such continent-wide survey, scientists have found extensive drainages of meltwater flowing over parts of Antarctica’s ice during the brief summer. Researchers already knew such features existed, but assumed they were confined mainly to Antarctica’s fastest-warming, most northerly reaches. Many of the newly mapped drainages are […]

Moss is turning Antarctica’s icy landscape green – Moss growth has “increased by 4 or 5 times” in the past five decades

By Zamira Rahim20 May 2017 (CNN) – Antarctica is home to ice, penguins and — thanks to climate change — rapidly increasing levels of moss, scientists say. Moss banks, found across parts of the western Antarctic Peninsula, have grown dramatically over the past 50 years, according to a study published in the scientific journal Current […]

The Doomsday Glacier – “If there is going to be a climate catastrophe, it’s probably going to start at Thwaites”

By Jeff Goodell9 May 2017 (Rolling Stone) – In the farthest reaches of Antarctica, a nightmare scenario of crumbling ice – and rapidly rising seas – could spell disaster for a warming planet. Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is so remote that only 28 human beings have ever set foot on it. Knut Christianson, a […]

Irreversible ocean warming threatens the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf – “We can already see the first signs of this trend today”

11 May 2017 (Alfred Wegener Institute) – By the second half of this century, rising air temperatures above the Weddell Sea could set off a self-amplifying meltwater feedback cycle under the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, ultimately causing the second-largest ice shelf in the Antarctic to shrink dramatically. Climate researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre […]

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