Warming Ocean Melts Greenland Glaciers, Alters Marine Ecosystems »
Posted By Newperson 1 week, 3 days ago in Science & TechnologyWith whale fins splashing in the distance, Ruth Curry hauls up her catch from the blustery deck of an icebreaker.An orange tube fixed to a metal frame breaks the surface as the motorized winch stops groaning. Inside: data on the water temperature deep down in this glacial fjord off southeast Greenland. "If you were to dip your hand in it, it doesn't seem that warm," says Curry, an American climate scientist. "But it is. It's warm enough to melt ice. And that's the important thing here."Curry and her colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts zigzagged between majestic icebergs in the Sermilik fjord last month in search of proof that waters from warmer latitudes, or subtropical waters, are flushing through this remote and frigid region.They found it — all the way up to the base of the outlet glaciers that spill into the ocean like tongues of ice from Greenland's massive ice sheet. Coupled with similar findings off western Greenland, the discovery could help to explain why the glaciers have started flowing quicker in the past decade, a phenomenon that raised alarm because it contributes to rising sea levels.Scientists say it's a natural process — in one period the cold waters will have the upper hand, and in the next it's the other way round. But the rapidly increasing temperatures of the subtropical oceans suggest that the balance could be tilted beyond natural variability, Curry says.
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Newperson
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Newperson1 week, 3 days ago
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The North Atlantic has seen especially large changes in recent years.
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Helge Drange, professor of oceanography at Norway's University of Bergen says The temperature of the water that flows into the Arctic has increased by as much as 3.5 degrees F (2 degrees C) since the 1990s,
"This can only be understood as a combined effect of natural variability and manmade warming," he says. -
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Charlson1 week, 3 days ago
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Wonder how long it's going to take before we feel the catastrophic effects of global warming? Instead of events happening at a steady but slow pace, it speeds up to the point of natural disasters happening too frequently and with devastating damage to our environment that we find difficult to recover from.
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Endoscopy1 week, 3 days ago
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You mean like the catastrophic effects during the middle ages when it was a boon to agriculture? Do you people ever think without listening to the doom and gloom? Read what happened back in history when we had the last warming cycle. They were able to be much better off. But of course you can't look at that. St. Al has spoken and all good Goreabites must follow. Even though the peak temperature year was 1998. Keep the faith and never listen to the fact that science has left you behind.
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Wolfie20071 week, 3 days ago
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greenmac1 week, 3 days ago
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Wolfie... answer me this. do you not believe there is loss of see ice/ Do you not believe glaciers are melting? Can you provide us with documentation that supports your point of view. i know i can provide you with satellite and ground photos that support the point of view that sea ice is receding. Maybe you are just unable to grasp the situation... or is it you just hate those that provide the documentation and stories that PROVE there is climate change happening.
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