Carbon dioxide is increasing in the atmosphere 10 times faster than it has in the last 50,000 years, according to a new study led by researchers from University of St. Andrews and Oregon State University. The findings shed light on periods of abrupt climate change in the planet’s history while offering new understanding of the […]
The Antarctic ice sheet is of vital importance to the climate. Ice reflects sunlight, keeping the planet cool. The sheet contains 70 percent of all the freshwater on the planet, which, if it were to melt entirely, would absorb heat and cause global sea levels to rise by around 200 feet. A new modeling study […]
According to a new study by researchers at the Netherlands’ Utrecht University and the University of California, Irvine (UCI), the rate at which Greenland’s surface ice has been melting has increased in recent decades, while surface ice melt in Antarctica has slowed. For the study, the researchers examined the role that katabatic and Foehn winds […]
Recent satellite data from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center shows that Antarctic sea ice extent is far below any level ever recorded. The continent’s sea ice is an important regulator of Earth’s temperature by not only lowering the temperature of the water below, but also reflecting the sun’s rays back into the […]
Rapid global heating due to humans’ use of fossil fuels has contributed to an array of damaging environmental effects on the planet, including extreme weather, unprecedented ocean temperatures and a rapid decline in sea ice. Sea ice is the habitat of several animal species, including polar bears, Arctic fox, caribou and emperor penguins, who live […]
A gigantic iceberg nearly the size of Greater London has broken free from the 492-foot-thick Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Cracks that had been developing naturally in the ice shelf over the past few years had expanded across the entire shelf, causing the iceberg to finally calve on Sunday, according to a British Antarctic Survey […]
Now, a study published in Geophysical Research Letters in September found that warm water is making its way into a dip beneath East Antarctica’s Denman Glacier, melting 70.8 billion tons of ice each year.
Sea ice forms in the Arctic and Antarctic in winter and retreats in summer, but it doesn’t disappear completely — at least not yet. The floating frozen seawater has a surprisingly strong influence on weather patterns and ocean circulation in the polar regions and beyond. Rapidly shrinking Arctic sea ice has been one of the […]
A massive Antarctic glacier is less stable and could potentially cause more and more rapid sea level rise than previously predicted, a study published Monday in Nature Geoscience finds. The Thwaites Glacier, known as the “doomsday glacier” because it holds enough water to raise global sea levels by multiple feet, is especially susceptible to rising ocean […]