Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
A new study reveals a rather extensive system of meltwater is flowing within the Antarctic. Entitled “Widespread movement of meltwater onto and across Antarctic ice shelves“, it was published in Nature a couple of days ago. The title is not simply a hint, but describes exactly what this study reveals. Up until now the very existence … Read more
Each month NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) issues a global analysis for the preceding month. The Nov data is now available. Basically they aggregate information from many different sources. This all then comes together to construct a global and near-global understanding of large-scale conditions. That of course takes time, hence these reports are typically … Read more
Last Friday a new paper on the melting of the largest Ice Shelf in Antarctica was published. Available in AAAS, it is entitled … Ocean heat drives rapid basal melt of the Totten Ice Shelf It is open access, so no paywall, you can view the entire paper without any hassle (yea). What is it … Read more
Chris Mooney has been writing within the Washington Post about a lake of water that exists underneath an ice shelf in East Antarctica … “Many people refer to East Antarctica as being too cold for significant melt,” says Jan Lenaerts, a glaciologist with the Utrecht University in the Netherlands. “I mean there’s marginal melt in summer, … Read more
A picture of a massive rift far inland on the Larson C Ice shelf has been published via NASA #ICEBridge (see above). What is IceBridge? The goal NASA’s Operation IceBridge is to collect data on changing polar land and sea ice. They have been doing this via a series of flights over the region. This is being done … Read more
What is going on under Pine Island Glacier’s ice shelf is something that appears to be remote, distant, and even potentially irrelevant to most of us. Unfortunately, what actually happens there has the potential to greatly impact not just millions, but tens of millions of human lives over the next 100 years or so. OK, so let’s … Read more