Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Wind Drives Totten Glacier Melting Process

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday November 04 2017, @03:40AM   Printer-friendly
from the Nevada's-ocean-front-view dept.
Science

GeriatricGentleman writes:

Totten Glacier, the largest glacier in East Antarctica, is being melted from below by warm water that reaches the ice when winds over the ocean are strong according to research. The winds cause the surface waters to diverge (because of the effects of Earth’s rotation, surface water is transported 90° to the left of the wind direction in the southern hemisphere) allowing the warmer deep water to well up and contact the ice.

The new findings are a cause for concern because the glacier holds more than 3.5m (11 feet) of sea level rise, acts as a plug that helps lock in the ice of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (550,000 sq kms of it!) and local surface winds are projected to intensify over the next century as a result of increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.

http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/3/11/e1701681.full.pdf

Original Submission

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Wind Drives Totten Glacier Melting Process | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 3 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 04 2017, @05:00AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 04 2017, @05:00AM (#592077)

    ... and start preparing their coastlines for catastrophe???

    I'm getting flashes of Austin Powers on the steamroller [youtube.com].

(1)