Scientists just uncovered some troubling news about Greenland’s most enormous glacier

By Chris Mooney 11 April 2017 (The Washington Post) – The largest glacier in Greenland is even more vulnerable to sustained ice losses than previously thought, scientists have reported. Jakobshavn glacier, responsible for feeding flotillas of icebergs into the Ilulissat icefjord — and possibly for unleashing the iceberg that sank the Titanic — is an […]

Scientists highlight Antarctic ice upheaval in response to prehistoric climate change – “The Antarctic ice cap is not some enduring monolithic block but a much more slippery ephemeral beast”

28 March 2017 (University of Southampton) – A team of scientists led by the University of Southampton has found that the Antarctic ice cap underwent dramatic cycles of expansion and melt-back millions of years ago when carbon dioxide levels were similar to those experienced today. The research, led by palaeoclimatologist Dr Diederik Liebrand as part […]

Massive permafrost thaw documented in Canada, portending huge carbon release

BY Bob Berwyn28 February 2017 (InsideClimate News) – Huge slabs of Arctic permafrost in northwest Canada are slumping and disintegrating, sending large amounts of carbon-rich mud and silt into streams and rivers. A new study that analyzed nearly a half-million square miles in northwest Canada found that this permafrost decay is affecting 52,000 square miles […]

US Antarctic expert Eric Rignot on climate science in the age of Trump – “There’s a lot at stake here”

By Veronika Meduna 14 February 2017 (The Spinoff) – US-based glaciologist Eric Rignot is in New Zealand this week to talk about polar ice sheets and their potential to add to predicted sea level rise. He tells Veronika Meduna that it’s more important than ever to discuss climate science and what it’s like to be […]

Most of Greenland ice melted to bedrock in recent geologic past – ‘Unfortunately, this makes the Greenland ice sheet look highly unstable’

7 December 2016 (Columbia University) – Scientists have found evidence in a chunk of bedrock drilled from nearly two miles below the summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet that the ice nearly disappeared for an extended time in the last million years or so. The finding casts doubt on assumptions that Greenland has been relatively […]

Historic shrinking of Antarctic Ice Sheet linked to CO2 spike

11 October 2016 (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) – Twenty-three million years ago, the Antarctic Ice Sheet began to shrink, going from an expanse larger than today’s to one about half its modern size. Computer models suggested a spike in carbon dioxide levels as the cause, but the evidence was elusive – until now. Ancient fossilized leaves […]

Earth now warmest it’s been in 120,000 years

WASHINGTON, 26 September 2016 (AP) – A new study paints a picture of an Earth that is warmer than it has been in about 120,000 years, and is locked into eventually hitting its hottest mark in more than 2 million years. As part of her doctoral dissertation at Stanford University, Carolyn Snyder, now a climate […]

Greenland ice is melting 7 percent faster than previously thought – ‘The present destabilization may increase sea level for centuries to come’

By Pam Frost Gorder21 September 2016 COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ohio State University) – The same hotspot in Earth’s mantle that feeds Iceland’s active volcanoes has been playing a trick on the scientists who are trying to measure how much ice is melting on nearby Greenland. According to a new study in the journal Science Advances, the […]

Permafrost carbon: Catalyst for deglaciation

By Andrew H. MacDougall22 August 2016 (Nature Geoscience) – Between 17,500 and 14,500 years ago, a period sometimes referred to as the Mystery Interval1, atmospheric CO2 concentrations began their post-glacial rise from about 190 ppm in glacial times to approximately 270 ppm by the beginning of the Holocene. The rise in CO2 during the Mystery […]

Dazzling blue lakes are forming in Antarctica, and scientists are worried

[Jim Hansen’s supralinear sea level rise scenario looks increasingly likely. –Des] By Chris Mooney 17 August 2016 (Washington Post) – In a new study, scientists who study the largest ice mass on Earth — East Antarctica — have found that it is showing a surprising feature reminiscent of the fastest melting one: Greenland. More specifically, […]

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