Scientists - Rapid Ice-Sheet Melting Mechanisms May Already Be In Motion

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n a new report to be released Friday in the journal Science, researchers from Oregon State University and four other institutions in the U.S. and Europe outline dynamic mechanisms of glacial change that appear to be under way, could significantly speed up the melting of major ice sheets, and have not been considered in current projections for sea level rise.

A possibility, scientists say, is that the melting and collapse of floating ice shelves near the coasts of Greenland and Antarctica will continue and in the process destabilize the ice sheets behind them. This could cause a much more rapid flow of ice to the sea and lead to melting events that transcend those now anticipated due to global warming. Based on this, the researchers say that current projections of sea level rise should be considered a minimum to expect, and the levels could be much higher and happen more quickly.

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What has caught the attention of scientists in recent years is the rapid collapse of some glaciers near the coasts of Greenland and Antarctica. Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland nearly doubled its flow speed in the past decade. Along the Antarctic Peninsula, warming over the past few decades has caused retreat or near-total loss of several ice shelves, some of which had existed for thousands of years - and surface melting cannot explain most of the losses. In 2002 the Larsen B Ice Shelf in Antarctica collapsed, and major tributary glaciers entering the former ice shelf began to move 2-8 times faster than they had previously. Also in Antarctica, large glaciers feeding the Amundsen Coast thinned and accelerated by up to 26 percent over the last three decades, with repercussions more than 120 miles inland.

It's become clear, Clark said, that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, much of which sits on land that's actually below sea level, is one of the most vulnerable in the world to these types of rapid breakdowns. If it were to melt, that would add another 20 feet to global sea levels. In future modeling of potential sea level rise, the researchers said in their report, it's essential that the mechanisms for breakup of major ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica be more carefully considered in the projections. If these mechanisms continue and prove to be significant, sea level projections will have to be revised upward, the scientists said. Other collaborators on this study were from Pennsylvania State University, the University of Washington, and institutes or universities in Germany and Belgium.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051023122913.htm

It cannot be so. There is no such thing as global warming. That's just a left wing fallacy.

global cooking.

:sarcasm: (I am just about 30' above sea level near the coast of FL).

about 10 miles from the Gulf. We are at 9' above sea level. Guess it is time to buy the houseboat so I can head north along the future "Interstate 49 Canal" toward Shreveport in the event of a hurricane. :scared:

A lot of islands will be gone or deserted and -every- port in the world is within 20 feet of sea level (as are most of the cities around them). All of these cities would have to be re-engineered to install new port facilities.

Then add high tide, storm surge from tropical storms and hurricanes...

Add a four-foot high tide to a 26-foot storm surge on top of a rise of 20 feet in sea level and you're looking at fifty feet above current sea level

that once a climate change reaches a certain point, be it a warming or a cooling trend, there's a "tipping" point after which things move VERY rapidly. There's a lot of evidence out there that when the ice sheets formed in various Ice Ages, they formed quite quickly, within a hundred years or so. The same would be for rapid melting of ice sheets.

In other words, climate change is not always a long, slow, gradual thing, but can happen virtually overnight. And that's true whether or not what humans do has any effect on things.

I seem to remember passages in Steinbeck's "East of Eden" where the fictional book made that assertion, I believe accurately.

It probably wouldn't take a whole lot of sea rise to start to re-encroach on that area. Come to think of it, maybe it has already begun. I refer not just to Katrina and Rita but to the massive flooding of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers when it appeared the entire central portion of the US was underwater to viewers watching descriptions on TV.

I think that the 'beach front' comment made in post #2 by our resident member of the RCMP represented more truth than jest.