Scientists throw light on mysterious ice age temperature jumps – “A gradual rise of CO2 within the atmosphere can hit a tipping point, triggering abrupt temperature shifts that drastically affect the climate across the Northern Hemisphere”

20 June 2017 (Cardiff University) – Scientists believe they have discovered the reason behind mysterious changes to the climate that saw temperatures fluctuate by up to 15°C within just a few decades during the ice age periods. In a new study published today, the researchers show that rising levels of CO2 could have reached a […]

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 […]

A climate chain reaction: Major Greenland melting could devastate crops in Africa

By Chelsea Harvey 6 June 2017 (The Washington Post) – As melting Greenland glaciers continue to pour ice into the Arctic Ocean, we have more than the rising seas to worry about, scientists say. A new study suggests that if it gets large enough, the influx of freshwater from the melting ice sheet could disrupt […]

Could global warming shut down the Gulf Stream?

By Renee Cho 6 June 2017 (Earth Institute) – The 2004 disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow, depicted the cataclysmic effects—superstorms, tornadoes and deep freezes— resulting from the impacts of climate change. In the movie, global warming had accelerated the melting of polar ice, which disrupted circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean, triggering violent changes […]

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 […]

Receding glacier causes immense Canadian river to vanish in four days – “Day by day we could see the water level dropping”

By Hannah Devlin 17 April 2017 (The Guardian) – An immense river that flowed from one of Canada’s largest glaciers vanished over the course of four days last year, scientists have reported, in an unsettling illustration of how global warming dramatically changes the world’s geography. The abrupt and unexpected disappearance of the Slims river, which […]

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