Antarctic ice sheet thinning

[DmoneyCustoms]

Antarctic ice sheet thinning

A PIECE of the Antarctic ice sheet the size of Texas is thinning, possibly due to global warming, and could cause the world's oceans to rise significantly, polar ice experts say.

They said "surprisingly rapid changes" were occurring in Antarctica's Amundsen Sea Embayment, which faces the southern Pacific Ocean, but that more study was needed to know how fast it was melting and how much it could cause the sea level to rise.

The warning came in a joint statement issued at the end of a conference of US and European polar ice experts at the University of Texas in Austin.

The scientists blamed the melting ice on changing winds around Antarctica that they said were causing warmer waters to flow beneath ice shelves.

The wind change appeared to be the result of several factors, including global warming, ozone depletion in the atmosphere and natural variability.

The thinning in the 3.2km- thick ice shelf was being observed mostly from satellites, but it was not known how much ice had been lost because data was difficult to obtain on the remote ice shelves, they said.

Study was focusing on the Amundsen Sea Embayment because it had been melting quickly and held enough water to raise world sea levels 6m, the scientists said.

"The place where the biggest change is occurring is the Amundsen Sea Embayment," said Donald Blankenship of the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.

"One, it's changing, and two, it can have a big impact," he said in a webcast with a number of conference participants.

Other parts of the continent also were losing ice, he said, but generally not as quickly.

STORY: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...005961,00.html

That is a rather large sea rise, 18ft or 6m....I wonder what an 18ft sea rise would do to our coastal cities hmmmm ....Anybody got any maps of the world that would show what it would look like if the sea does rise 18ft.........

[Stabby Joe]

Not sure about 18ft HOWEVER I have seen a map of a rise of even MORE than 18ft.

Flood Map

[DmoneyCustoms]

Not sure about 18ft HOWEVER I have seen a map of a rise of even MORE than 18ft.

Flood Map

Thanks Stabby Joe, on the pic that you just posted do you have an idea of how much of a sea rise that is..?

[TC]

Even though this topic has been discussed on several other threads, it just wasn't listed as solely "Antarctic" although if new people are interested to back track under Polar ice melt, there are some relevant posts.

I think some of this has to be looked at with a certain amount of science, one of them is recurrent snow fall, these projected forecasts of rising sea levels are based on the existing ice melting and not being replenished, (albeit a popular doomsday topic) but this is not the case, and simply put, it still annually snows in the polar regions which replenishes snow pack which turns to glacial ice.

There has been a fluctuating retreat of polar ice punctuated with periodic cold cycles (mini ice age) since the beginning of the Holocene (around 10.000 years) and with the current rate of ice melt we could expect a sea level rise of 3.5 to 35in. over the next hundred years. The problem is not so much a drastic rise, but the added affect of storm surge during this next century, as we have witnessed of late....

As an after edit, I would add that Polar regions are similar to deserts,by having less precipitation than the rest of the world due to an extreme dry cold, but due to a milder climate this could theoretically add to snow and ice due to hydrothermal exchange being further north.

[Protostar]

Aah, and that is a key. Heat from below melting the poles and eventually seperating the ice sheets, Solar radiation and other solar materials entering into our atmosphere at the north poles indicates A major change taking place there and it's polar opposite. New information should be coming from Stereo and Themis on our magnetic field soon. This info will be interesting as we have been bombarded almost daily by solar wind streams flowing from coronal holes but also pushing material passing by the earth in as well!
Crazy vortex's are the result.
Meanwhile, under the poles and throughout the entire planet, heat is eminating and there is an exposure of magnetic material in the ocean. Volcanism is stadily rising world wide and an increase of large earthquake activity as well.
But the earth is not the only planet experiencing climate troubles. It is truly amazing and when you think about the synchronicity of the planets in our solar system, you wonder what happens when they get out of synch with eachother.

[TC]

Aah, and that is a key. Heat from below melting the poles and eventually seperating the ice sheets, Solar radiation and other solar materials entering into our atmosphere at the north poles indicates A major change taking place there and it's polar opposite. New information should be coming from Stereo and Themis on our magnetic field soon. This info will be interesting as we have been bombarded almost daily by solar wind streams flowing from coronal holes but also pushing material passing by the earth in as well!
Crazy vortex's are the result.
Meanwhile, under the poles and throughout the entire planet, heat is eminating and there is an exposure of magnetic material in the ocean. Volcanism is stadily rising world wide and an increase of large earthquake activity as well.
But the earth is not the only planet experiencing climate troubles. It is truly amazing and when you think about the synchronicity of the planets in our solar system, you wonder what happens when they get out of synch with eachother.

As I know vary little about solar facts, I couldn't question the effects this might have, but science has come to some accepted conclusions dealing with volcanism, ( not to get to far off topic) and I'll use the science division of The national museum of natural history (Smithsonian ) as a reference. Quote: We don't think so. And this is based on collective data that shows an increase in population observance of volcanic activity over the last 200 years... not a physical rise in the number of eruptions, in fact it shows a constant rate with peaks and valleys which suggests global pulsations. Just my two cents worth..

[lady-t]

it said 3.2km of ice now how long does it take to melt that thickness at the current accelerated rate of melt? that is what i would like to know. also, all that fresh water entering into the world ocean current would delsalinate it at least some andhow would that affect the thermohalingajigger thing. but it wouldn't be warm water it would be super cold so how would that affect things like plankton and coral reefs and migratory patterns of ocean life?

[shawnee]

Holy crap! There goes the Netherlands and Florida! South America takes a dip, too.

According to "An Incovenient Truth" a 20ft. rise in oceans will occur if either Greenland or western shelves of Antartica go....

[oldtimer]

Holy crap! There goes the Netherlands and Florida! South America takes a dip, too.

According to "An Incovenient Truth" a 20ft. rise in oceans will occur if either Greenland or western shelves of Antartica go....

That is 11 to 20 inches of sea rise,one of many falsehoods in the move...sorry