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 ...
Maybe sea levels are dropping.
Yeah, big numbers can do that, I wanted to tease you a little bit, but I held back!
Here’s a thought, maybe that’s why the place is named Greenland, also, Hannibal crossed the Alps waaay back when the ice had melted enough for him (along with his elephants) to just stroll across, hmmmm?
this must be Bush’s fault
Stop right there! In geological terms an eon is 1,000,000,000 years, and this is not even close.
how do they know it’s the ice getting thicker, as opposed to the entire island rising from below, and the ice staying the same? 2 inches/yr = 5 cm.
They use calibration of the land-mass by measuring the distance at the edges of the ice sheet and at areas not covered by ice. The overall Greenland ice sheet is growing, not shrinking.
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