zombie massive amount of snow Greenland The ice sheet will eventually raise global sea level by at least 10 inches (27 cm) on its own, according to a study released Monday.
Zombie or ruined snow is snow that is still attached to thick areas of ice, but is no longer being found by those larger glaciers. This is because the replenishment of ice in the original glaciers is decreasing. Meanwhile, the wasted ice is melting from climate change, said study co-author William ColganA glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.
“It’s dead ice. It’s about to melt and disappear from the ice sheet,” Colgan said in an interview. “This ice has been shipped into the ocean, regardless of whatever climate (emissions) scenario we take now.”
Study lead author Jason Box, a glaciologist with the Greenland Survey, said it was “like a foot in the grave”.
The inevitable 10-inch sea level rise in the study is more than double what scientists previously expected from the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. The study in the journal Nature Climate Change states that it can reach up to 30 inches (78 centimeters). In contrast, last year’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected a range of 2 to 5 inches (6 to 13 cm) for a potential rise in sea level from the melting of Greenland ice by the year 2100.
What the scientists did for the study was to observe the ice in equilibrium. In perfect equilibrium, snow flows down the mountains in Greenland and recharges and thickens the edges of glaciers, balancing what is melting at the edges. But less replenishment and more melting over the past few decades is creating imbalances. The study authors looked at the proportion of what is being lost and calculated that 3.3% of Greenland’s total ice volume would melt, no matter what happens with the world cutting carbon pollution, Colgan said.
“I think starving would be a good phrase,” Colgan said.
One of the study’s authors said that more than 120 trillion tons (110 trillion metric tons) of ice is doomed to melt from an inability to refill the edges of an already warm ice sheet. When that ice melts and turns into water, if it were focused only on the United States, it would have been 37 feet (11 m) deep.
This is the first time scientists have calculated the minimum ice loss – and with sea level rise – for Greenland, one of Earth’s two vast ice sheets that have been affected by climate change by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Due to which it is gradually shrinking. The scientists used an accepted technique for calculating the least committed ice loss, which was used on mountain glaciers, for the entire vast frozen island.
Pennsylvania State University Glaciologists Richard AlleyThose who were not part of the study, but said it made sense, said that the committed melting and sea level rise is like a snowflake in a hot room over a cup of hot tea.
“You’ve done massive damage to the snow,” Elle said in an email. “Similarly most of the world’s mountain glaciers and the shores of Greenland will continue to lose mass if temperatures are stabilized at modern levels because they have been put into hot air like your ice cube was poured into hot tea.”
Although 10 inches doesn’t sound like much, it is a global average. Some coastal areas would be more affected, and on top of that high tides and storms could be worse, so such a rise in sea level would have “huge social, economic and environmental impacts,” said Elin Anderlin, a geosciences professor at Boise. Said State University.
Timing is the unknown key here and there is little problem with the study, said two outside ice scientists, Leigh Stearns of the University of Kansas and Sophie Nowicki of the University of Buffalo. Researchers in the study said they cannot estimate the time of committed melting, yet in the last sentence they mention “within this century,” without supporting it, Stearns said.
Colgan replied that the team doesn’t know how long it will take for all the wasted ice to melt, but with an educated guess, it will probably be until the end of this century, or at least until 2150.
Colgan said it really is a best case scenario. The year 2012 (and 2019 to a different degree) was a huge meltdown year, when the balance between adding and subtracting ice was most likely out of balance. If Earth begins to pass through more years like in 2012, the melting of Greenland could lead to a 30-inch (78-centimeter) rise in sea level, he said. Those two years are now at a peak, he said, but the years that look normal now will peak 50 years ago.
“That’s how climate change works,” Colgan said. “Today’s outliers become yesterday’s averages.”
Zombie or ruined snow is snow that is still attached to thick areas of ice, but is no longer being found by those larger glaciers. This is because the replenishment of ice in the original glaciers is decreasing. Meanwhile, the wasted ice is melting from climate change, said study co-author William ColganA glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.
“It’s dead ice. It’s about to melt and disappear from the ice sheet,” Colgan said in an interview. “This ice has been shipped into the ocean, regardless of whatever climate (emissions) scenario we take now.”
Study lead author Jason Box, a glaciologist with the Greenland Survey, said it was “like a foot in the grave”.
The inevitable 10-inch sea level rise in the study is more than double what scientists previously expected from the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. The study in the journal Nature Climate Change states that it can reach up to 30 inches (78 centimeters). In contrast, last year’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected a range of 2 to 5 inches (6 to 13 cm) for a potential rise in sea level from the melting of Greenland ice by the year 2100.
What the scientists did for the study was to observe the ice in equilibrium. In perfect equilibrium, snow flows down the mountains in Greenland and recharges and thickens the edges of glaciers, balancing what is melting at the edges. But less replenishment and more melting over the past few decades is creating imbalances. The study authors looked at the proportion of what is being lost and calculated that 3.3% of Greenland’s total ice volume would melt, no matter what happens with the world cutting carbon pollution, Colgan said.
“I think starving would be a good phrase,” Colgan said.
One of the study’s authors said that more than 120 trillion tons (110 trillion metric tons) of ice is doomed to melt from an inability to refill the edges of an already warm ice sheet. When that ice melts and turns into water, if it were focused only on the United States, it would have been 37 feet (11 m) deep.
This is the first time scientists have calculated the minimum ice loss – and with sea level rise – for Greenland, one of Earth’s two vast ice sheets that have been affected by climate change by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Due to which it is gradually shrinking. The scientists used an accepted technique for calculating the least committed ice loss, which was used on mountain glaciers, for the entire vast frozen island.
Pennsylvania State University Glaciologists Richard AlleyThose who were not part of the study, but said it made sense, said that the committed melting and sea level rise is like a snowflake in a hot room over a cup of hot tea.
“You’ve done massive damage to the snow,” Elle said in an email. “Similarly most of the world’s mountain glaciers and the shores of Greenland will continue to lose mass if temperatures are stabilized at modern levels because they have been put into hot air like your ice cube was poured into hot tea.”
Although 10 inches doesn’t sound like much, it is a global average. Some coastal areas would be more affected, and on top of that high tides and storms could be worse, so such a rise in sea level would have “huge social, economic and environmental impacts,” said Elin Anderlin, a geosciences professor at Boise. Said State University.
Timing is the unknown key here and there is little problem with the study, said two outside ice scientists, Leigh Stearns of the University of Kansas and Sophie Nowicki of the University of Buffalo. Researchers in the study said they cannot estimate the time of committed melting, yet in the last sentence they mention “within this century,” without supporting it, Stearns said.
Colgan replied that the team doesn’t know how long it will take for all the wasted ice to melt, but with an educated guess, it will probably be until the end of this century, or at least until 2150.
Colgan said it really is a best case scenario. The year 2012 (and 2019 to a different degree) was a huge meltdown year, when the balance between adding and subtracting ice was most likely out of balance. If Earth begins to pass through more years like in 2012, the melting of Greenland could lead to a 30-inch (78-centimeter) rise in sea level, he said. Those two years are now at a peak, he said, but the years that look normal now will peak 50 years ago.
“That’s how climate change works,” Colgan said. “Today’s outliers become yesterday’s averages.”