Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Coastal Antarctic permafrost melting faster than expected—Arctic-like melt rates appearing in Coast…
Last edited Wed Jul 24, 2013, 12:05 PM - Edit history (2)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/uota-cap072213.php[font face=Serif]Public release date: 24-Jul-2013
Contact: J.B. Bird
jbird@jsg.utexas.edu
512-232-9623
University of Texas at Austin
[font size=5]Coastal Antarctic permafrost melting faster than expected[/font]
[font size=4]Arctic-like melt rates appearing in Coastal Antarctica[/font]
[font size=3]For the first time, scientists have documented an acceleration in the melt rate of permafrost, or ground ice, in a section of Antarctica where the ice had been considered stable. The melt rates are comparable with the Arctic, where accelerated melting of permafrost has become a regularly recurring phenomenon, and the change could offer a preview of melting permafrost in other parts of a warming Antarctic continent.
Tracking data from Garwood Valley in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region of Antarctica, Joseph Levy, a research associate at The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics, shows that melt rates accelerated consistently from 2001 to 2012, rising to about 10 times the valley's historical average for the present geologic epoch, as documented in the July 24 edition of Scientific Reports.
Scientists had previously considered the region's ground ice to be in equilibrium, meaning its seasonal melting and refreezing did not, over time, diminish the valley's overall mass of ground ice.
Instead, Levy documented through LIDAR and time-lapse photography a rapid retreat of ground ice in Garwood Valley, similar to the lower rates of permafrost melt observed in the coastal Arctic and Tibet.
…[/font][/font]
http://www.utexas.edu/news/2013/07/24/coastal-antarctic-permafrost-melting-faster-than-expected/
Contact: J.B. Bird
jbird@jsg.utexas.edu
512-232-9623
University of Texas at Austin
[font size=5]Coastal Antarctic permafrost melting faster than expected[/font]
[font size=4]Arctic-like melt rates appearing in Coastal Antarctica[/font]
[font size=3]For the first time, scientists have documented an acceleration in the melt rate of permafrost, or ground ice, in a section of Antarctica where the ice had been considered stable. The melt rates are comparable with the Arctic, where accelerated melting of permafrost has become a regularly recurring phenomenon, and the change could offer a preview of melting permafrost in other parts of a warming Antarctic continent.
Tracking data from Garwood Valley in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region of Antarctica, Joseph Levy, a research associate at The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics, shows that melt rates accelerated consistently from 2001 to 2012, rising to about 10 times the valley's historical average for the present geologic epoch, as documented in the July 24 edition of Scientific Reports.
Scientists had previously considered the region's ground ice to be in equilibrium, meaning its seasonal melting and refreezing did not, over time, diminish the valley's overall mass of ground ice.
Instead, Levy documented through LIDAR and time-lapse photography a rapid retreat of ground ice in Garwood Valley, similar to the lower rates of permafrost melt observed in the coastal Arctic and Tibet.
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep02269 (Open Access)
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
