{"id":20613,"date":"2016-05-14T11:31:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-14T16:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=20613"},"modified":"2016-05-14T11:31:26","modified_gmt":"2016-05-14T16:31:26","slug":"shock-impacts-hit-greenlands-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=20613","title":{"rendered":"Shock impacts hit Greenland\u2019s ice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shock impacts hit Greenland\u2019s ice<\/a><\/h3>\n

\"CROP--greenland<\/a><\/h3>\n
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An aerial view of icebergs floating in Greenland\u2019s Ilulissat Icefjord.\u00a0Image: Mark Garten\/<\/em>UN Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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New research indicates that melting of the Northern Hemisphere\u2019s biggest ice sheet is being accelerated by the seismic impact of waves crashing against Greenland\u2019s coastline.<\/strong><\/div>\n

LONDON, 14 May, 2016<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Seismic waves that race through Greenland\u2019s bedrock may help answer\u00a0questions about the pattern of melting and freezing<\/a>\u00a0over the Northern Hemisphere\u2019s biggest single sheet of ice.<\/p>\n

Scientists need answers because Greenland remains a puzzle: the glaciers may be accelerating their pace towards the sea \u2212 but, despite rising temperatures, the\u00a0interior is not losing ice<\/a>, according to a second study.<\/p>\n

And a third study presents a new paradox: there may be little ice melt over most of the icecap, but changing climatic conditions suggest that\u00a0less snow is falling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is enough ice packed on Greenland to raise global sea levels by seven metres if it melts. Right now, the flow from the island\u2019s glaciers is probably pushing up sea levels by 0.6mm a year.<\/p>\n

Harsh conditions<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is repeatedly confirmed evidence that\u00a0glaciers are melting\u00a0at an accelerating rate<\/a>, and several\u00a0consequences of global climate change<\/a>that suggest\u00a0that this\u00a0process should go on accelerating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But research in Greenland\u2019s harsh conditions is challenging, and year-round continuous observation so far has been almost impossible, even with airpower and satellite studies.<\/p>\n

But German Prieto, assistant professor of geophysics in the department of Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at the\u00a0Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/a>, and colleagues\u00a0report in Science Advances journal<\/a>\u00a0that they could exploit the one source of evidence that would never falter.<\/p>\n

The waves that crash on the coastline send tiny seismic shudders through the rock, and seismic wave velocity changes with rock density. So the reasoning is that changes in the mass of ice pressing down on the rocks could be revealed by changes in the speed of the waves through the rock.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shock impacts hit Greenland\u2019s ice An aerial view of icebergs floating in Greenland\u2019s Ilulissat Icefjord.\u00a0Image: Mark Garten\/UN Photo New research indicates that melting of the Northern Hemisphere\u2019s biggest ice sheet is being accelerated by the seismic impact of waves crashing against Greenland\u2019s coastline. LONDON, 14 May, 2016\u00a0\u2013 Seismic waves that race through Greenland\u2019s bedrock may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[141,9245,369,2196,13821,13820,13822,13823,11565],"class_list":["post-20613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-news-network","tag-global-warming","tag-greenland","tag-ice-melting","tag-ice-sheets","tag-ocean-waves","tag-seismic-impact","tag-tim-radford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20614,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20613\/revisions\/20614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}