As Alaska Glaciers Melt, It’s Land That’s Rising

[IndianaGreen]

As Alaska Glaciers Melt, It’s Land That’s Rising

Glaciers around Juneau are receding 30 feet or more each year.

By CORNELIA DEAN
Published: May 17, 2009

JUNEAU, Alaska — Global warming conjures images of rising seas that threaten coastal areas. But in Juneau, as almost nowhere else in the world, climate change is having the opposite effect: As the glaciers here melt, the land is rising, causing the sea to retreat.

Morgan DeBoer, a property owner, opened a nine-hole golf course at the mouth of Glacier Bay in 1998, on land that was underwater when his family first settled here 50 years ago.

“The highest tides of the year would come into what is now my driving range area,” Mr. DeBoer said.

Now, with the high-tide line receding even farther, he is contemplating adding another nine holes.

“It just keeps rising,” he said.

The geology is complex, but it boils down to this: Relieved of billions of tons of glacial weight, the land has risen much as a cushion regains its shape after someone gets up from a couch. The land is ascending so fast that the rising seas — a ubiquitous byproduct of global warming — cannot keep pace. As a result, the relative sea level is falling, at a rate “among the highest ever recorded,” according to a 2007 report by a panel of experts convened by Mayor Bruce Botelho of Juneau.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/science/earth/18juneau.html?hp

[madrchsod]

1. along with the trapped methane....

[xchrom]

2. now that's interesting. nt

[obliviously]

3. Antarctica

is building it's icecap I wonder if it is sinking? There go those beautiful Antarctic gulf courses?

[Arctic Dave]

4. Or maybe the tectonic plates are shifting.

All those mountains surrounding Juneau weren't made from glaciers receding.

[yowzayowzayowza]

5. I wonder if this effect is taken into account when calculating ...

the sea level rise if Greenland loses itz ice cover.?

[Nihil]

6. At the end of the day ...

... nobody really cares if Greenland's high tide mark changes
due to isostatic rebound but lots of people will notice the
difference elsewhere ...

[yowzayowzayowza]

7. I was thinking more along the lines of...

the post melt rise of the Greenland land mass displacing further water exacerbating sea level rise. :shrug:

[pscot]

8. As the shorline rises it must displace

a corresponding amount of water, forcing sea level rise elsewhere.

[Nihil]

9. OK

I thought you were trying to claim a silver lining from
the (effectively) lowered sea level on Greenland itself.
:hi: