Icelandic scientists say they have discovered a new overturning site, where cold, dense, deep water is formed and transported through a separate route towards the Denmark Strait and further south into the Atlantic Ocean.
Last week we learned 5 percent of the Eemian sea level rise was thermal expansion of the oceans. Today we learn the slightly higher temperatures led Greenland to ‘only’ add an extra 1.6-2.2m. Do we fail to spot the Antarctic … Continue reading
Sounds like there’s new food to calibrate our oceans’ sea level sensitivity. In red the image shows inundations around the Gulf of Mexico under Eemian sea levels. That’s ‘bye bye Houston, New Orleans, Miami.’ Two days ago we looked at … Continue reading
In March we learned ice sheet formation is two-sided. On Sunday, sipping coffee whilst reading the latest Nature Geoscience, we learned the same might go for ice sheet melting. If so, melting would likely accelerate over this century and sea … Continue reading
We recently witnessed a new Greenland melting record. And according to a new paleoclimate comparison by James Hansen we could be in for meters of sea level rise within this century, due to expected non-linearity of the melting process.
Comparing previous interglacial periods, like the Eemian, to the present geological epoch, the Holocene, shows slight average temperature rises are strongly magnified around the poles. Even under the 450 Scenario 21st century sea level rise could reach multiple meters. “Current … Continue reading
In 2010 Greenland lost more surface ice mass than in any other year since modern observations began, researchers of City College New York reported on Friday.
Today COP16, the follow-up to last years UN climate conference in Copenhagen, starts in the Mexican city of Cancún. Also today Greenland sees record high temperatures.