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
UCI researchers map oceanic troughs below ice sheets in West Antarctica
https://news.uci.edu/research/uci-researchers-map-oceanic-troughs-below-ice-sheets-in-west-antarctica/[font face=Serif][font size=5]UCI researchers map oceanic troughs below ice sheets in West Antarctica[/font]
[font size=4]Channels give warm ocean water access to their undersides, speeding glacier retreat[/font]
[font size=3]Irvine, Calif., Jan. 18, 2017 – University of California, Irvine glaciologists have uncovered large oceanic valleys beneath some of the massive glaciers flowing into the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica. Carved by earlier advances of ice during colder periods, the subsurface troughs enable warm, salty water to reach the undersides of glaciers, fueling their increasingly rapid retreat.
The discovery is the result of an analysis of gravity data from airborne NASA Operation IceBridge missions from 2009 to 2014 combined with ice motion measurements made by UCI researchers, UCI’s own mass conservation algorithm, and existing bed topography and ice thickness information. Study findings appear in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters.
…
Millan said the study’s most important findings were the gigantic submarine valleys under the Crosson and Dotson ice shelves. The channels start 1,200 meters below the masses of ice and slope up to points 500 meters beneath Crosson and 750 meters beneath Dotson.
…
Should the glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment region of Antarctica completely collapse, researchers said, the global sea level could rise an additional 1.2 meters. As bad as that sounds, they noted, there are some features of the ocean floor topography that might work to slow down the process of glacier retreat.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]Channels give warm ocean water access to their undersides, speeding glacier retreat[/font]
[font size=3]Irvine, Calif., Jan. 18, 2017 – University of California, Irvine glaciologists have uncovered large oceanic valleys beneath some of the massive glaciers flowing into the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica. Carved by earlier advances of ice during colder periods, the subsurface troughs enable warm, salty water to reach the undersides of glaciers, fueling their increasingly rapid retreat.
The discovery is the result of an analysis of gravity data from airborne NASA Operation IceBridge missions from 2009 to 2014 combined with ice motion measurements made by UCI researchers, UCI’s own mass conservation algorithm, and existing bed topography and ice thickness information. Study findings appear in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters.
…
Millan said the study’s most important findings were the gigantic submarine valleys under the Crosson and Dotson ice shelves. The channels start 1,200 meters below the masses of ice and slope up to points 500 meters beneath Crosson and 750 meters beneath Dotson.
…
Should the glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment region of Antarctica completely collapse, researchers said, the global sea level could rise an additional 1.2 meters. As bad as that sounds, they noted, there are some features of the ocean floor topography that might work to slow down the process of glacier retreat.
…[/font][/font]
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
