Antarctic glaciers surge to ocean (BBC) {MFTE}

[eppur_se_muova]

By Martin Redfern
Rothera Research Station, Antarctica

UK scientists working in Antarctica have found some of the clearest evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica.

If the trend continues, they say, it could lead to a significant rise in global sea level.

The new evidence comes from a group of glaciers covering an area the size of Texas, in a remote and seldom visited part of West Antarctica.

The "rivers of ice" have surged sharply in speed towards the ocean.

David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey, explained: "It has been called the weak underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and the reason for that is that this is the area where the bed beneath the ice sheet dips down steepest towards the interior.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7261171.stm

[opihimoimoi]

1. Tom DeLuded still refutes these kinds of findings /evidence/studies

What do you call people who reject Reality and Sanity???

[eppur_se_muova]

6. In this case, "The Accused". nt

[diane in sf]

14. Repugs...

[Systematic Chaos]

2. Meanwhile, in the Arctic,

it appears that they've lost almost half a million square kilometers of whatever passes for "ice" up there, literally overnight. And it's not even spring up there yet. Jumping Jebus on a pogo stick this sucks....

[Systematic Chaos]

3. PS: if you've read the damn thing, help send it to the Greatest page.

The Primary Parade (tm) could use another serious pissing on.

[Tashca]

4. What did I miss??

Your saying the ice is leaving this year already???.....you say literally overnight??

I've been trying to follow and not sure what I missed....

Sorry if I appear clueless....I am just trying to catch up.

[Systematic Chaos]

8. If it were possible to sticky any thread in this forum...

...I would have to recommend this one.

I give it a kick every few days just for handy reference because all of the charts in it change daily.

I'm sitting here like someone cracked me over the head with a cinder block because of the incredibly sharp drop in the ice area graph that's going on right now. I'm hoping it's another data error, because the graph did have a few of those around the turn of the year (the one where the line went backwards in time was especially amusing), but I'm not so sure about this. I think it's real.

[Tashca]

9. Thanks for response.

I did find that thread after I posted. That is an interesting and hard to believe development.
I will be looking at this with interest in the future.
So much information in this forum......I am very impressed.

[OKIsItJustMe]

13. A key paragraph

...

Throughout the 1990s, according to satellite measurements, the glacier was accelerating by around 1% a year. Julian Scott's sensational finding this season is that it now seems to have accelerated by 7% in a single season, sending more and more ice into the ocean.

...

Okay... so, the glacier has been accelerating steadily for several years now. (Glaciers tend to flow quite slowly.) Now, it appears it's accelerating at a much faster rate.

That doesn't mean that tomorrow the whole thing will slide into the ocean, but pretend you were slowly sliding down hill. Then, you start sliding faster and faster, then, you really start to speed up!

[pansypoo53219]

5. does this mean

the north pole live cam is gonna need an anchor?

last year it look a tad melted, then puddles. the open OCEAN.

[Systematic Chaos]

10. Something else that was especially unsettling this winter...

...is that there was not a single day this past winter where the ice area map a few posts down the thread I referenced didn't have areas of open water north of 80 degrees north! That close to the damn pole and the water couldn't freeze over in near total darkness?

:hurts:

[aasleka]

7. Although ice is high elsewhere

I keep an eye on the 31 day animation, have to love NOAA so much information gets me giddy.

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SNOW/

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SNOW/DATA/nhem-1mo-loop.html

[FirstLight]

11. Kick & rec

This should be the SINGLE most important issue on the debate for presidency! WE have only heard from both candidates, "green collar jobs" and a token nod to global climate change.... but we ned to see some serious SHIFT in infrastructure, not the same old...

I want off the grid so bad I have been dreaming about houses for months now... I have decided to try and grow what food I can in the backyard of my rental, just to try and get by when the shit hits the fan. Composting will be our way of life once I figure out how to make something that's bear-proof... these are all things I can do to help in our own survival, though I don't expect my footprint to be changed considerably. It's mostly for some peace of mind that we'll be able to survive once the ports are flooded and life as we know it shifts drasticaly...I am telling you, the models all were set to be 20-50-100 years out...now we are going to see it in five.
:scared:

are we worried yet?

(edit for typos)

[Systematic Chaos]

12. I honestly didn't think my sense of humor could get much more black or warped.

A few years of reading this forum has shown me otherwise. In spades.

[file83]

15. It'll warp a little more with this latest report from the Pentagon:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2915135

Check out the part that says: "As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions."

Maybe that cliff on the graph isn't an error after all...::scared: