Posted on 02/25/2009 9:33:32 AM PST by NormsRevenge
GENEVA – Antarctic glaciers are melting faster across a much wider area than previously thought, scientists said Wednesday — a development that could lead to an unprecedented rise in sea levels.
A report by thousands of scientists for the 2007-2008 International Polar Year concluded that the western part of the continent is warming up, not just the Antarctic Peninsula.
Previously most of the warming was thought to occur on the narrow stretch pointing toward South America, said Colin Summerhayes, executive director of the Britain-based Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research and a member of International Polar Year's steering committee.
But satellite data and automated weather stations indicate otherwise.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a visit to the Taiyanggong Geothermal Power Plant in Beijing. The United States and China have glossed over differences on human rights as they pledged to work more closely in tackling the global economic crisis and climate change. (AFP/POOL/Greg Baker)
Any chance that increased volcanic activity has anything to do with this??? If the mantle underneath heats up, wouldn’t it melt the ice next to the bedrock, creating water, and thus lubricating the glaciers so that they slide into the oceans faster???
article re: the area mentioned..
Alp-sized peaks found entombed in Antarctic ice
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2193249/posts
If it is not in the script , the mainstream media will ignore that offering..
LOL! Maybe it’s a lightning rod...
Volcanic eruptions reshape Arctic ocean floor: study
June 25, 2008 | AFP
Recent massive volcanoes have risen from the ocean floor deep under the Arctic ice cap, spewing plumes of fragmented magma into the sea, scientists who filmed the aftermath reported Wednesday.
The eruptions -- as big as the one that buried Pompei -- took place in 1999 along the Gakkel Ridge, an underwater mountain chain snaking 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia.
Scientists suspected even at the time that a simultaneous series of earthquakes were linked to these volcanic spasms.
But when a team led of scientists led by Robert Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts finally got a first-ever glimpse of the ocean floor 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) beneath the Arctic pack ice, they were astonished.
What they saw was unmistakable evidence of explosive eruptions rather than the gradual secretion of lava bubbling up from Earth's mantle onto the ocean floor.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gRI87Fyr-TpE6OBYfAcYxFKSXRJg
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From Ohio State University News, Dec 2007...
EARTH'S HEAT ADDS TO CLIMATE CHANGE TO MELT GREENLAND ICE
COLUMBUS , Ohio -- Scientists have discovered what they think may be another reason why Greenland 's ice is melting: a thin spot in Earth's crust is enabling underground magma to heat the ice.
They have found at least one “hotspot” in the northeast corner of Greenland -- just below a site where an ice stream was recently discovered.
The researchers don't yet know how warm the hotspot is. But if it is warm enough to melt the ice above it even a little, it could be lubricating the base of the ice sheet and enabling the ice to slide more rapidly out to sea.
But...but... NASA just launched a CO2 rocket at Antarctica to study the problem.
Sea levels haven't gone up in 20 years - in spite of 20 years of dire predictions. Put ice cubes in a glass of water and watch. The glass won't spill over when the ice melts...
That's apparently what's happening in parts of the northern hemisphere.
"The researchers don't yet know how warm the hotspot is. But if it is warm enough to melt the ice above it even a little, it could be lubricating the base of the ice sheet and enabling the ice to slide more rapidly out to sea."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2193797/posts?page=7#7
But ywt, it will be called "melting".
And somehow, the increased CO2 in the atmosphere will be blamed for making the BOTTOM of the glacier more slippery...
...”a tree started growing out of Hillary’s head...”
An abundance of fertilizer in that area.
I wonder if the medieval climatologists complained about global warming at the end of the Little Ice Age.
So, I’ll have beachfront property in upstate NY? NYC, Boston, LA and San Francisco all under water? Guess I’ll just have to suffer through it.
Not to mention the associated seismic activity cracking the ice.
I wonder if medieval climatologists complained that burning witches caused global warming?
This HAS to be total crap. Antarctica is no where near reaching above freezing level is it? I monitor Vostok, it is always 20-60 below there, and isn’t is summer there?
When the average summer time high temp is -4 F, how exactly does a 1 degree increase melt all the glaciers?
Oh no! Everybody get your life-jackets!
Seriously, how can a gas that is a half of a percent of the atmosphere be the problem? The increase as a percent of the atmosphere is tiny. All this GoreBull Warming, oops, I mean “Climate Change”, is just so much evo-atheist socialist nonsense.
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