Science

Judi Lynn

(160,630 posts) Fri Jun 22, 2018, 10:13 PM Jun 2018

What Antarctica's Incredible "Growing" Icepack Really Means

What happens in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica, since the continent's ice can affect global weather and
sea level.

PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA/GSFC/JEFF SCHMALTZ/MODIS LAND RAPID RESPONSE TEAM

A NASA study has climate scientists up in arms; here’s what it means.

BY BRIAN CLARK HOWARD, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 3, 2015

ARE THE ANTARCTIC’S ice sheets shrinking or growing? And what does that mean for global sea-level rise?

Those questions are being hotly debated by the world’s climate scientists as global leaders prepare for the UN climate talks in Paris at the end of this month. Now, a new study by a team of NASA climate scientists has sparked controversy by reporting that “Antarctica is actually gaining ice.”

Scientists concluded in the Journal of Glaciology that the loss of glacier mass in Antarctica’s western region is being offset by thickening of glaciers on the continent’s eastern interior, which has experienced increased snowfall. The result: A net gain of about 100 billion tons of ice per year, according to the report.

That increase in ice translates to about a quarter of a millimeter per year less sea level rise than was previously predicted, says lead author Jay Zwally, chief cryospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

More:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/151103-antarctic-ice-growing-shrinking-glaciers-climate-change/?beta=true

3 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

What Antarctica's Incredible "Growing" Icepack Really Means (Original Post) Judi Lynn Jun 2018 OP

Nov 2015? NickB79 Jun 2018 #1

Antarctica Is Getting Taller, and Here's Why Judi Lynn Jun 2018 #2

The uplifting is happening too slowly to save the glaciers NickB79 Jun 2018 #3

NickB79

(19,273 posts)

1. Nov 2015?

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Fri Jun 22, 2018, 11:54 PM

Jun 2018

Research just released this past month contradicts this older study

Judi Lynn

(160,630 posts)

2. Antarctica Is Getting Taller, and Here's Why

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sat Jun 23, 2018, 12:21 AM

Jun 2018

By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | June 21, 2018 03:12pm ET

Bedrock under Antarctica is rising more swiftly than ever recorded — about 1.6 inches (41 millimeters) upward per year. And thinning ice in Antarctica may be responsible.

That's because as ice melts, its weight on the rock below lightens. And over time, when enormous quantities of ice have disappeared, the bedrock rises in response, pushed up by the flow of the viscous mantle below Earth's surface, scientists reported in a new study.

These uplifting findings are both bad news and good news for the frozen continent.

The good news is that the uplift of supporting bedrock could make the remaining ice sheets more stable. The bad news is that in recent years, the rising earth has probably skewed satellite measurements of ice loss, leading researchers to underestimate the rate of vanishing ice by as much as 10 percent, the scientists reported. [Images of Melt: Earth's Vanishing Ice]

An incomplete picture
Interplay between bedrock and mantle in Antarctica is just one of the many geologic processes that happen all over our dynamic planet. Under Earth's crust cover, the molten mantle extends over 1,796 miles (2,890 kilometers) down to Earth's core. Mantle movement is known to ripple up and affect the crust's tectonic plates, as these plates ride convection currents in the mantle's outermost part, known as the lithosphere.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/62885-earth-rising-under-antarctica.html

NickB79

(19,273 posts)

3. The uplifting is happening too slowly to save the glaciers

Reply to Judi Lynn (Reply #2)

Sat Jun 23, 2018, 07:38 AM

Jun 2018

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180614101245.htm

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