More at bokbluster.com
Posted on 01/13/2010 5:39:13 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
A major Antarctic glacier has passed its tipping point, according to a new modelling study. After losing increasing amounts of ice over the past decades, it is poised to collapse in a catastrophe that could raise global sea levels by 24 centimetres.
Pine Island glacier (PIG) is one of many at the fringes of the West Antarctic ice sheet. In 2004, satellite observations showed that it had started to thin, and that ice was flowing into the Amundsen Sea 25 per cent faster than it had 30 years before.
Now, the first study to model changes in the ice sheet in three dimensions shows that PIG has probably passed a critical "tipping point" and is irreversibly on track to lose 50 per cent of its ice in as little as 100 years, significantly raising global sea levels.
The team that carried out the study admits their model can represent only a simplified version of the physics that govern changes in glaciers, but say that if anything, the model is optimistic and PIG will disappear faster than it projects.
Richard Katz of the University of Oxford and colleagues developed the model to explore whether the retreat of the "grounding line" – the undersea junction at which a floating ice shelf becomes an ice sheet grounded on the sea bed – could cause ice sheets to collapse.
Warm seas
Climate change is warming the Amundsen Sea, which is at the southern margin of the Pacific Ocean. As rising sea levels push the warm water beneath the ice shelves, it melts them from below, pushing the grounding line higher up the continental shelf.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
The final sentence in every scientific report, including the ones I’ve worked on:
More investigation is needed.
More at bokbluster.com
I don’t believe it. They’re alarmists wanting to shake down taxpayers for more grant money... eff ‘em.
This is what a majority of the public believes:
Fire can’t melt steel.
There can’t be volcanoes under the icecaps, if there were, there wouldn’t be any icecaps.
There are a few volcanos, like Hawaii, and Mt. St. Helens, and Vesuvius, which have exploded recently.
There are no volcanoes under water, because water puts out fires.
We have had more earthquakes and volcanoes and hurricanes than at any time in history.
Polar bears can’t swim very well, or very long.
Penguins, uh...uh... Al Gore never said anything about penguins. Who cares about penguins anyway? They live at the South Pole and there’s no Santa Claus at the South Pole, so they can’t be important.
I'm not.
Loving the free and feeling spirit
Of hugging a tree when you get near it
Digging the snow and the rain and the bright sunshine!
Indeed, you’re not. I think I was 11 when it came out.
Ceres... I missed that post... hey, has that been a topic yet?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.