Posted on 05/18/2010 2:24:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The ice is melting so fast in Greenland that the giant island is rising noticeably as the weight is lifted. In some spots, the land is rising 1 inch per year.
A vast ice cap covers much of Greenland, in some places up to 1.2 miles (2 km) thick. The ice, in place for eons, presses down the land, making the elevation at any given point lower than it would be sans ice.
Scientists have documented on Greenland and elsewhere that when longstanding ice melts away, the land rebounds. Even the European Alps are rising as glaciers melt.
Now, scientists at the University of Miami say Greenland's ice is melting so quickly that the land underneath is rising at an accelerated pace.
Some coastal areas are going up by nearly 1 inch per year, the scientists announced today. If current trends continue, that could accelerate to as much as 2 inches per year by 2025, said Tim Dixon, professor of geophysics at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) and principal investigator of the study.
"It's been known for several years that climate change is contributing to the melting of Greenland's ice sheet," Dixon said in a statement. "What's surprising, and a bit worrisome, is that the ice is melting so fast that we can actually see the land uplift in response."
Dixon added: "Even more surprising, the rise seems to be accelerating, implying that melting is accelerating."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It takes millennia for the land to “rebound.”
HANK JOHNSON: "Oh no! Greenland may tip over like Guam is going to if the ice melts first on one side!"
Oops.
Similar to the Guam tipping problem. Whoever fixed that should be called in here.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
drat, you beat me to it! I wanted to use that line...maybe if everyone climbed on one side of the island?
Yep! I just finished watching a TV show (History? or Discovery Channel?) on the Great Lakes. They mentioned that because of the rebound from the last ice sheets, the Toronto CN Tower is rising. It’s been about 10,000 years since there was an ice cap over Toronto.
Can these idiots tell us how by many feet has the Greenland icecap decreased in height since the invention of the SUV?
You can always tell when the turn of the seasons moves Spring to Summer. Global warming alarmism works better in the Summer. Just this morning, a story on the radio said that this past April was the warmest April on record, worldwide. The reporterette was just beside herself reporting the story, she had such a tone of “I told you so!” Then this. Expect more global warming stories in the next few months as the public opinion pendulum swings back towards Al Gore.
I said before the oceans would not rise because the added pressure would push down on the sea floor as satire but if this is the case with melting ice on land then why not the bottom of the ocean too?
Winston Churchill 1940.
If it melts even more, it might tip over...
The ocean is rising at a rate of 0.049mm per year. We’re all going to die!
Notice that the writer said "Even the European Alps are rising as glaciers melt" and that would be true whether or not there were more glaciers, fewer glaciers, or no glaciers at all.
The Alps are rising as the African continent collides with Europe!
Greenland is rising as the mantle underneath it recovers from the last Ice Age glaciation. It is also rising as the North American plate is pushed West by the Mid-Atlantic ridge where magma is welling up and creating new ocean bottom AND more Icelandic landmass.
We should be more concerned with what's happening at Iceland!
Exactly. The writer hopes his readers know nothing about geology.
Its called isostatic rebound and its been going on for about 14,000 years since the retreat of the continental ice sheets at the end of the last ice age. This rebound can be measured in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, everywhere that was covered by ice. The shocker would be that its not going on in Greenland. That would require a serious explanation. This sort of alarmism relies on the simple fact that most people aren’t geologists and don’t know the history of Pleistocene North America. Any Geology grad student would shrug his shoulders, and then write a grant request for $5,000,000 to study this threatening phenomenon.
***Greenland has been rising since the end of the last Ice Age - more than 10,000 years ago.****
Rising up at the rate of two inches per year X 10K years - there should be a Mt.Everest up there;)
Sumthin’ ain’t rite!!!
Using this logic does this mean then that the earth is also getting bigger since the ice is disappearing from the planet?
10,000 years times 2” per year equals 20,000 inches. Divide by 12” per foot equals 1,700 feet.
Greenland is rising because the Icelandic rift is widening. The plate is moving westward and raising Greenland out of the Atlantic.
For ever action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The volcano in Iceland is the action. The subduction under Greenland is the reaction.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOps;)
Red face!!!! LOL!!!
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