All articles tagged with #ice sheets
A multinational team aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough sails to Greenland to study tidewater glaciers and how melting ice sheets could rewire the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre, with autonomous sensors and AI helping improve climate models; the six-week SE Greenland fjord campaign aims to reveal glacier–ocean interactions that could affect UK rainfall, storms, reservoirs and North Atlantic fisheries.
A new study argues that deep-Earth mantle waves, triggered during the Gondwana breakup, uplifted East Antarctica around 45 million years ago. This uplift raised elevations high enough for snow to persist, allowing the East Antarctic ice sheet to form by about 34–35 million years ago and contribute to global cooling. The Arctic, lacking similar high terrain, lagged behind by roughly 25 million years, with climate and CO2 declines later driving ice-age conditions. The work suggests geology helped set the stage for ice sheets long before climate alone made the poles cold.
Scientists confirmed how the famous sailing stones at Racetrack Playa move: during a rare winter, a shallow pond freezes into a 3–6 mm ice sheet that cracks into panels; a light breeze pushes these panels, sliding heavy rocks across the mud at a walking pace. The 2013–2014 study installed a weather station, time-lapse cameras, and GPS loggers, capturing major moves (one rock ≈65 m in 16 minutes; total trails up to 224 m) and showing that movement is episodic and dependent on precise conditions, while older theories of hurricane winds or thick ice are unlikely. The finding explains many trails, though not all on the playa, and highlights how subtle forces can shape dramatic landscapes.
Global sea levels are rising at an accelerating pace driven mainly by warming oceans expanding water, with glaciers and ice sheets contributing increasingly; improved satellite and tide-gauge measurements close a long-standing discrepancy between observations and known causes, and scientists warn sea levels will keep rising for centuries due to climate inertia.
Scientists mapped a gravity low beneath Antarctica caused by extremely slow deep-Earth rock movements over tens of millions of years. The anomaly strengthened between about 50 and 30 million years ago, coinciding with the emergence of Antarctica’s vast ice sheets, suggesting mantle dynamics may have helped shape surface ice and sea level. Using earthquake data like a planetary CT scan and computer models, researchers reconstructed the gravity hole’s history and plan to explore how these interior processes influence climate.
Scientists mapped Earth’s interior with earthquakes to build a 3D mantle model and a map of the Antarctic Geoid Low, finding the depression has persisted for about 70 million years but has intensified over the last 40–50 million years as subducted slabs sank and buoyant mantle material rose. The results, which also align with true polar wander, suggest deep Earth processes can subtly shift sea level and influence the growth of Antarctica’s ice sheet; the work was published in Scientific Reports.
Scientists finally uncovered the mystery of the moving rocks in Death Valley's Racetrack Playa, revealing that delicate sheets of ice, formed overnight and melted in the sun, along with light winds, gently push the rocks across the desert floor, leaving trails that have puzzled observers for over a century.
Australian scientists warn that Antarctica is experiencing rapid, irreversible climate changes, including shrinking sea ice, weakening ocean currents, and destabilizing ice sheets, driven by global warming. These changes threaten global sea levels and ecosystems, emphasizing the urgent need for deep emission cuts this decade to prevent irreversible damage.
NASA and BAS revealed detailed images of Antarctica's hidden terrain beneath the ice, showing a rugged landscape that influences ice flow and global sea levels, with implications for understanding climate change and future sea-level rise.
Greenland's landmass is experiencing complex movements due to tectonic activity and the lingering effects of past ice sheets, with recent research revealing that mantle adjustments from ice sheet retreat are causing the island to twist, lift, and shrink in ways that could impact navigation and our understanding of Earth's history.
Researchers using ESA's CryoSat satellite data have discovered 85 new subglacial lakes beneath Antarctica, increasing the known active lakes to 231, which are crucial for understanding ice sheet dynamics and potential impacts on global sea levels.
Antarctica is experiencing rapid and potentially irreversible environmental changes, including significant sea ice loss and warming of surrounding waters, which threaten to accelerate ice sheet collapse and cause global sea level rise, emphasizing the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Satellite data from 1993 to 2023 confirms that sea levels are rising faster than expected, validating early climate models and highlighting the significant role of melting ice sheets and regional differences. Continued monitoring is essential for refining future projections and implementing targeted interventions for vulnerable coastal areas.
Emerging evidence indicates abrupt environmental changes in Antarctica, including significant sea ice loss, ice sheet melting, and potential climate tipping points, driven by global warming and oceanic changes, with implications for sea level rise and ecosystem stability.
Scientists from the University of Wisconsin and University of Colorado have discovered new evidence suggesting a more dynamic and complex geological history of Antarctica, particularly involving the Transantarctic Mountains, which may have significantly influenced the continent's glacial cycles and climate history.