News tagged with ice sheet
Catastrophic sea levels 'distinct possibility' this century: study
A breakthrough study of fluctuations in sea levels the last time Earth was between ice ages, as it is now, shows that oceans rose some three meters in only decades due to collapsing ice sheets.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 15, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (90) |
25
Ice Sheets Can Retreat 'In a Geologic Instant,' Study of Prehistoric Glacier Shows
(PhysOrg.com) -- Modern glaciers, such as those making up the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, are capable of undergoing periods of rapid shrinkage or retreat, according to new findings by paleoclimatologists ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 21, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (62) |
20
Greenland ice sheet larger contributor to sea-level rise
The Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than expected according to a new study led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher and published in the journal Hydrological Processes.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 12, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (52) |
8
Sea level rise could be worse than anticipated
If global warming some day causes the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to collapse, as many experts believe it could, the resulting sea level rise in much of the United States and other parts of the world would be ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Feb 05, 2009 |
3.3 / 5 (49) |
37
Climate change to continue to year 3000 in best case scenarios: research
New research indicates the impact of rising CO2 levels in the Earth's atmosphere will cause unstoppable effects to the climate for at least the next 1000 years, causing researchers to estimate a collapse of the West Antar ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 09, 2011 |
2.8 / 5 (58) |
127
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Ice sheet melt identified as trigger of Big Freeze
The main cause of a rapid global cooling period, known as the Big Freeze or Younger Dryas - which occurred nearly 13,000 years ago - has been identified thanks to the help of an academic at the University of Sheffield.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 31, 2010 |
4.4 / 5 (28) |
25
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Previously Unknown Volcanic Eruption Helped Trigger Cold Decade
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of chemists from the U.S. and France has found compelling evidence of a previously undocumented large volcanic eruption that occurred exactly 200 years ago, in 1809.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 29, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (27) |
9
Greenland ice cap melting faster than ever
Satellite observations and a state-of-the art regional atmospheric model have independently confirmed that the Greenland ice sheet is loosing mass at an accelerating rate, reports a new study in Science.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 12, 2009 |
3.6 / 5 (32) |
25
New melt record for Greenland ice sheet (w/ Video)
New research shows that 2010 set new records for the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, expected to be a major contributor to projected sea level rises in coming decades.
Jan 21, 2011 |
4.3 / 5 (26) |
81
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NASA Spots Surprising Shrimp Beneath Antarctic Ice (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- At a depth of 600 feet beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet, a small shrimp-like creature managed to brighten up an otherwise gray polar day in November 2009. Bob Bindschadler of NASA's Goddard ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 15, 2010 |
4.9 / 5 (22) |
5
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Report sees sharper sea rise from Arctic melt (Update)
(AP) -- The ice of Greenland and the rest of the Arctic is melting faster than expected and could help raise global sea levels by as much as 5 feet this century, dramatically higher than earlier projections, ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 03, 2011 |
4 / 5 (27) |
48
New data show much of Antarctica is warming more than previously thought
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists studying climate change have long believed that while most of the rest of the globe has been getting steadily warmer, a large part of Antarctica - the East Antarctic Ice Sheet - ...
Jan 21, 2009 |
3 / 5 (36) |
31
Long debate ended over cause, demise of ice ages -- may also help predict future
Researchers have largely put to rest a long debate on the underlying mechanism that has caused periodic ice ages on Earth for the past 2.5 million years - they are ultimately linked to slight shifts in solar radiation caused ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 06, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (24) |
63
Global sea level likely to rise as much as 70 feet for future generations
Even if humankind manages to limit global warming to 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends, future generations will have to deal with sea levels 12 to 22 meters (40 to 70 ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 19, 2012 |
3.3 / 5 (32) |
256
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Study: Greenland ice sheet may melt completely with 1.6 degrees global warming
The Greenland ice sheet is likely to be more vulnerable to global warming than previously thought. The temperature threshold for melting the ice sheet completely is in the range of 0.8 to 3.2 degrees Celsius ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 11, 2012 |
3.8 / 5 (28) |
132
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Ice sheet
An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km² (20,000 mile²). The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of Canada and North America, the Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America.
Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or glaciers. Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap. An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery.
Although the surface is cold, the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat. In places, melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly. This process produces fast-flowing channels in the ice sheet — these are ice streams.
The present-day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms. The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as a small ice cap (maybe several) in the early Oligocene, but retreating and advancing many times until the Pliocene, when it came to occupy almost all of Antarctica. The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene, but apparently developed very rapidly with the first continental glaciation. This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet.
For more information about Ice sheet, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
