Chit Chat
There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
13 Nov 09
12:53
Joined:
Date Joined:
27 Apr 07
The Greenland ice sheet is losing its mass faster than in previous years and making an increasing contribution to sea level rise, a study has confirmed.
Published in the journal Science, it has also given scientists a clearer view of why the sheet is shrinking.
The team used weather data, satellite readings and models of ice sheet behaviour to analyse the annual loss of 273 thousand million tonnes of ice.
Melting of the entire sheet would raise sea levels globally by about 7m (20ft).
For the period 2000-2008, melting Greenland ice raised sea levels by an average of about 0.46mm per year.
Since 2006, that has increased to 0.75mm per year.
"Since 2000, there's clearly been an accelerating loss of mass [from the ice sheet]," said lead researcher Michiel van den Broeke from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
"But we've had three very warm summers, and that's enhanced the melt considerably.
"If this is going to continue, I cannot tell - but we do of course expect the climate to become warmer in the future."
In total, sea levels are rising by about 3mm per year, principally because seawater is expanding as it warms.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8357537.stm
Published in the journal Science, it has also given scientists a clearer view of why the sheet is shrinking.
The team used weather data, satellite readings and models of ice sheet behaviour to analyse the annual loss of 273 thousand million tonnes of ice.
Melting of the entire sheet would raise sea levels globally by about 7m (20ft).
For the period 2000-2008, melting Greenland ice raised sea levels by an average of about 0.46mm per year.
Since 2006, that has increased to 0.75mm per year.
"Since 2000, there's clearly been an accelerating loss of mass [from the ice sheet]," said lead researcher Michiel van den Broeke from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
"But we've had three very warm summers, and that's enhanced the melt considerably.
"If this is going to continue, I cannot tell - but we do of course expect the climate to become warmer in the future."
In total, sea levels are rising by about 3mm per year, principally because seawater is expanding as it warms.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8357537.stm
sort by:
Show
per page
Replies: 27
|
By:
More misleading guff.
Check out the ice level in the Antartic, which is increasing. It's normal global climate, nothing else. |
|
By:
link please
there was a nice picture of an ice-berg just of the coast of oz a few days back |
|
By:
and please no link to a phorum on par with 9/11 conspiracy nutters
|
|
By:
"But we've had three very warm summers, and that's enhanced the melt considerably.
That is the rub. The article is suggesting (at least in some reader's minds) that this is caused by climate change. However, the cause has been the 'three very warm summers' and what caused those? Sunspots, perhaps? Why no mention? |
|
By:
when it gets colder again one day it will all grow back .
i wouldnt worry about it :) |
|
By:
If all the Ice is in the south (antarctic increase) and leaves the north (arctic decrease), will the planet wobble under the changing weight?
not a serious Q btw. |
|
By:
That's a new one for me - seawater expanding as it warms.
Does normal water do this as well ? |
|
By:
climate change can be cause by sun spots. there is nowhere that the article suggests it is due to man
|
|
By:
also houses on the coast are getting cheaper, so theres always an upside :D
Nederlands estate agents doing a roaring trade |
|
By:
Dark Destroyer 13 Nov 14:02
That's a new one for me - seawater expanding as it warms. Does normal water do this as well ? yes all liquids expand when they warm and contract when cool. water is diferent in the fact that it also expands as it freezes. But above a certain temperature, around 5 degrees it behaves as a liquid, expanding when warmed and contracting when cooled |
|
By:
Thank you - something I certainly didn't know.
|
|
By:
Hang on. So as seawater warms it expands. But as it warms it presumably then starts to melt the ice, which then presumably shrinks. This whole water/temperature business is a good deal more complex than some people might think.
|
|
By:
In total, sea levels are rising by about 3mm per year, principally because seawater is expanding as it warms.
Sorry to be cynical but have you noticed that the sea doesn't exactly keep still! Just wondering how, and where, they measure the claimed fractions of a milimetre increase! |
|
By:
We are all doomed. DOOMED I tells ye.
|
|
By:
I've always had trouble getting me head round this area. Fill a glass with ice and top it up to the surface with water. You then leave it, the ice melts, and the level drops.
Now I know that icecaps are largely above sea-level ( however we define that) etc etc etc |
|
By:
the level doesn't drop. It is called displacement, and the reason why Archimede ran around naked shouting Eureka, or maybe it was all a misundeerstanding and he was shouting Ulrika
|
|
By:
lol flea.
Global 'warming' a big con imo, just a way of govts to tax us more. Roll on the next ice age! |
|
By:
So...
Water expands when it cools, and when it gets warm. That's any water shortage sorted then. |
|
By:
Greenland didn't used to be covered in ice.That's why it's called Greenland.
|
|
By:
how can you measure .7 of a milimetre with all them massive waves about. is open to interpretation imo
|
|
By:
What, Greenland was called that in a previous geological era?
|
|
By:
I think the coastal areas were less icy a few centuries ago.
The interior ice pack is quite old, acc to a news broadcast I saw. |
|
By:
doubleagent 14 Nov 00:50
Greenland didn't used to be covered in ice.That's why it's called Greenland. Actually that is incorrect, map makers made a mistake years ago that is why Iceland is so called and Greenland so called, they were mixed up. |
|
By:
The last stand of people against climate change would be heroic were it not for it being the most gullibe people in the world being manipulated by the most corrupt. 30 years it's taken for science to beat political opportunism, how can anyone be so dumb as to think a politician is going to WANT to stand up and say...'actually...you all need to be a lot poorer'?
|
|
By:
deliberate mistake supposedly
The Vikings wanted Iceland to themselves |
|
By:
Iceland was never called Greenland.Was originally called Thule or something like that.Greenland was greener in those days,say 1000-1100,at least where they settled.About 1500 got a lot colder.
|
|
By:
Is someone seriously suggesting Greenland had an internationally recognised name in 1100?
|