Researchers provide detailed picture of ice loss following collapse of Antarctic ice shelves

Contact: Patrick Lynch, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., 757-897-2047, patrick.lynch@nasa.gov 25 July 2011 An international team of researchers has combined data from multiple sources to provide the clearest account yet of how much glacial ice surges into the sea following the collapse of Antarctic ice shelves. The work by researchers at the University […]

Image of the Day: Satellite View of Ellesmere Island Ice Shelf Breakup, August 2008

Ellesmere Island ice shelves at the end of August 2008. The 2007 ice shelf extent is outlined in black and coastline in blue. Left to Right: Serson, Petersen, Milne, and Ward Hunt. The unusually wide expanse of open water along the coast likely contributed to the 2008 break-up of three of these ice shelves. 29 […]

Video: Greenland’s glaciers double in speed

February 21, 2011 (PhysOrg) – The contribution of Greenland to global sea level change and the mapping of previously unknown basins and mountains beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet are highlighted in a new film released by Cambridge University this morning. The work of glaciologist Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Director of Cambridge University’s Scott Polar Research Institute, […]

Emergency airlift from Antarctica bases as Ross Ice Shelf breaks up

By MICHAEL FIELD26 February 2011 (Stuff) – An Antarctic ice shelf used as a runway is breaking away, forcing an emergency airlift to close summer operations on the continent. The situation is being complicated by the Christchurch quake which is limiting operations at Christchurch Airport. Staff at New Zealand’s Scott Base and the US’s McMurdo […]

Graph of the Day: Deepwater Channel Beneath Pine Island Glacier, 2009

Caption by Kathryn Hansen and Michael CarlowiczJanuary 19, 2011 In October 2009, a series of flights over Antarctica led to the discovery of a hidden feature beneath a floating ice shelf. Scientists participating in NASA’s Operation IceBridge mapped the water depth and seafloor topography beneath Pine Island Glacier and found a deepwater channel—a likely pathway […]

West Antarctic ice shelf collapsed during warming event 125,000 years ago

By Alister Doyle, ReutersWednesday, 1 September 2010 Tiny marine creatures found on the seabed on opposite sides of West Antarctic give a strong hint of the effects of sea level rise, say scientists. The discovery of very similar colonies of bryozoans, animals that anchor themselves to the seabed, in both the Ross and Weddell Seas […]

After thousands of years, Canada’s ‘majestic’ ice shelves disintegrating

By Margaret Munro, Postmedia News August 28, 2010 Canada is home to plenty of ice, but the ancient, undulating ice shelves on the north coast of Ellesmere Island are something special. For starters, the shelves are “beautiful landscapes,” says earth scientist John England, at the University of Alberta, who considers the “majestic” shelves in Canada’s […]

Global sea ice in ‘constant retreat’

LONDONWed Apr 28, 2010 1:38pm EDT (Reuters) – The world’s floating ice is in “constant retreat,” showing an instability which will increase global sea levels, according to a report published in Geophysical Research Letters on Wednesday. Floating ice had disappeared at a steady rate over the past 10 years, according to the first measurement of […]

Dramatic glacial retreat caught by NASA satellite

In January through April of 2002, the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed in the Antarctic. This was a huge sheet of ice, about 3250 square kilometers (1250 square miles) in area, roughly equal to a square 57 km (34 miles) on a side. There had been a series of warm summers that weakened the shelf, […]

Graph of the Day: Arctic Ocean Aragonite Saturation, 1997 and 2008

(A) Surface distributions of Ω aragonite, S, fraction of sea ice meltwater (f SIM), and TA in surface water observed between depths of 0 and 20 m. f SIM was estimated by using 18O and S measurements (12, 13). Gray contour lines indicate isobaths of 1000, 2000, and 3000 m. (B) Relationship between Ω aragonite […]

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