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Greenland Ice Study: Could Higher Sea Level Come Sooner Than Expected? |
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The News -
Climate-Environment
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Written by Administrator
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By studying 120,000-year-old layers in the ice of Greenland, researchers have determined that the ice cover seems to be able to survive a warmer climate better than was previously believed. But at the same time they have found signs that the changes that are nevertheless happening will occur at an unexpectedly rapid rate. The level of the global seas may therefore rise faster than was previously thought. One example of rapid change was found by scientists who were studying a so-called ice stream, ice that moves like a river through the rest of the inland ice and often forms icebergs at the mouth, so-called calving. “In just two-three years the speed of a large ice stream nearly doubled. This means that we have underestimated the rapid changes that may ensue from the amounts of ice leaving the ice each year,” says Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, a professor at the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen is taking part in the climate conference “Global Environmental Change: The Role of the Arctic”, arranged by the European Science Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, and the Research Council Formas (Sweden). Source : Science Daily
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