How warming saves Greenland’s ice
When some of the spectacular calving of ice shelves in Antarctica goes down to global warming, someone can ask a question why don’t we see same process in Greenland which is even much warmer than Earth’s southern pole. It turns out that, counter-intuitively, it’s because Greenland is warmer.
When the ice sheets that blanket Greenland and Antarctica eventually meet the sea, they don’t immediately calve off and create icebergs. Instead, they extend out to sea as floating ice shelves while remaining joined to the ice sheets on land.
Eight years before, in 2002, a gigantic ice section of the Larsen B ice shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula suddenly broke off. That year was unusually warm summer, with temperatures rising to a balmy 4C. As the ice melted, huge pools of meltwater formed on the surface of the ice, as this water poured down crevasses it forced apart sections of the shelf.
In contrast, while Greenland has experienced summer temperatures of up to 11C over the past half century, many of the ice shelves have held firm, despite some surface melting. Mathematical models suggest the higher temperatures in Greenland cause lakes of meltwater to form on the ice sheet, rather than on the ice shelf as happens in Antarctica. This meltwater then pours down the glacier’s plumbing – to the ice sheet’s base, where it flows out to sea. Had the meltwater pooled on an ice shelf, the water flowing into the cracks would have split the floating ice.
These models suggest that something similar could have happened or will happen in Antarctica as it warms. Over time, as “plumbed” ice forms on land and flows down to the sea, the ice shelf could regrow. The plumbing would channel the water to the sea without forcing apart cracks in the ice.
The idea could be put to the test by studying the glaciers behind the now-disintegrated Larsen A and B ice shelves. If these ice sheets develop plumbing and push this ice towards the sea, then we may see the ice shelves regrow. Whether the regrowth could slow down the ice loss, that’s a question and forthcoming years will show what will happen.
Related posts:
- Everest glacier is melting due to global warming
- Movies on global warming
- Sun warming causes comet’s eruption
- Global temperatures in March breake all records
- Five global warming myths
Comments (1)
Leave a Reply
This is a good blog. Keep up all the work. I too love to site. This is great everyone sharing opinions. Magnificent post, very informative. You must continue your writing. I’m confident, you have a great readers’ base already!