antarctic ice melting faster doomsday vault

Scientists worry that climate change-triggered melt from Antarctica and Greenland will cause dangerous and significant sea rise over many decades and centuries. Climate models project that the Arctic Ocean may experience. Ice on Greenland is melting four times faster than it did just 16 years ago, a.

That melted ice, which usually pens larger glaciers behind it, then goes into the sea. The Arctic sea ice is shrinking at the rate of approximately 810 per decade since the late 1990s. Greenland ice melting faster than scientists had thought, nears tipping point. Of the continent’s 162 ice shelves, 68 show significant shrinking between 19, while 29 grew, 62 didn’t change and three lost mass but not in a way scientists can say shows a significant trend, according to a study in Thursday’s Science Advances. The area surveyed had been hidden beneath part of the floating ice shelf extending from Thwaites Glacier, which broke off in 2002, and was then often inaccessible due to thick sea-ice cover.(AP) - Four dozen Antarctic ice shelves have shrunk by at least 30% since 1997 and 28 of those have lost more than half of their ice in that time, reports a new study that surveyed these crucial “gatekeepers’' between the frozen continent’s massive glaciers and open ocean. Exceptional sea-ice break up in early 2019 enabled the icebreaker to survey more than 2,000 square kilometers of sea floor at the glacier’s ice front. The team collected data from the glacier and adjoining Dotson and Crosson ice shelves from January to March 2019. Once scientists can demonstrate the expected sea-level rise relating to West Antarctica, he said, they will have more evidence when calling for action to mitigate climate change. “At the end, we will be able to say to governments and policy-makers, this is what’s going to happen … we will actually have a proper, well-constrained estimate of what’s going to happen to Thwaites Glacier,” said Jordan. A simpler solution would be to “tackle climate change.” Jordan said that suggestions of geoengineering and blocking the channels is not logistically feasible at such a remote site. The loss of a floating ice shelf at the front of Thwaites glacier in Antarctica won’t significantly speed up the glacier’s flow into the sea, according to a modelling study. “I think this is a big step towards helping understand that,” he added. Greenland's ice sheet melted faster than ever before in 2019, study says. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Why it matters: The future of millions of coastal residents worldwide depends on the stability of the West. Climate change is having a profound effect in Greenland, where over the last several decades summers have become longer and the rate that glaciers and the Greenland ice cap are retreating has accelerated. A comprehensive look at ocean temperatures along West Antarctic coast shows that a faster melt of the region's ice shelves is all but 'unavoidable' this century and implies a quicker rate of sea level rise.

The Sahara heat wave that recently sent temperatures to record levels in parts of Europe has also reached Greenland. ILULISSAT, GREENLAND - AUGUST 04: In this view from an airplane rivers of meltwater carve into the Greenland ice sheet near Sermeq Avangnardleq glacier on Augnear Ilulissat, Greenland.

Antarctic ice melting faster doomsday vault