Melting

Petermann Glacier drains about 4 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet as it moves inexorably toward the Arctic Ocean. A new observation and modeling study shows that the glacier is more vulnerable than previously thought to the intrusion of warm ocean water on its underside, leading to accelerated melting and boosting the potential severity of future sea level rise. Credit: Eric Rignot / UCIUC Irvine researchers suggest we may be underestimating the severity of sea level rise.Researchers at the University of California,…

West Greenland Ice Sheet total ice discharge and surface melting for April 2022 to April 2023. Credit: Ing et al. 2024. Ice melting has become an ever-pressing concern in recent decades as climate change has brought evocative images of lone polar bears floating on unsustainable small blocks of sea ice. Yet, the consequences are far-reaching in terms of freshening of seawater altering marine ecosystems, sea level rise…

Scientists have come up with yet another radical climate change plan that they hope will save us from one of the most immediate catastrophic scenarios presented to us by global warming. The plan centers around the “doomsday glacier,” or the Thwaites glacier, which could raise sea levels exponentially if it melts.The reason that the glacier is referred to as the doomsday glacier is because it currently acts as a shield for other glaciers found in the colder parts of our world. So, if it melts and collapses, the…

A couple feet of sea level rise may not sound like a lot. But if sea levels rose by two feet (0.6 meters) worldwide, the effects on coastal communities would be catastrophic.Cities like New York, Miami, and New Orleans would experience devastating flooding. Across the globe, 97 million people would be in the path of rapidly encroaching waters, putting their homes, communities, and livelihoods at risk.That's what would happen if the Thwaites glacier, nicknamed the 'doomsday glacier,' collapsed. But it wouldn't stop…

Theodor Herzl, an editor and journalist from Vienna, was beautiful, with the handsome beard and majestic bearing of “one of the ancient Assyrian kings”. Israel Zangwill, from Kilburn, was variously described by contemporaries as “the homeliest man I ever saw” and “one of the worst-dressed men in London”. His novels were bestsellers, but he was so clumsy that when his arrival at a meeting was heralded by a clatter out in the hallway, one of those waiting for him exclaimed: “Israel must be coming. Something’s falling…

A new technique, which involves melting bacterial DNA found in blood samples, could deliver diagnoses of potentially fatal infections faster than ever before. Results may be obtained in a few hours, instead of days.Ordinarily, in order to see if harmful bacteria are present in someone's bloodstream, a sample of their blood is placed in a growth medium in a Petri dish. If the bacteria are indeed in the blood, they will proceed to grow. It can take anywhere from 15 hours to several days, however, before they've grown to…

When she started work on this fabulous book about her family, Rachel Cockerell was most intrigued by her grandmother Fanny and great aunt Sonia, who “raised children together in a giant, Edwardian north London house in the 1940s”. She envisaged only a few sentences about their father, David Jochelmann, who brought them over from Kyiv at the start of the first world war and lived in the same house until he died in 1941. But although the family remembered him only as a “businessman”, research soon revealed a fascinating…

Superstorms, abrupt climate shifts and New York City frozen in ice. That's how the blockbuster Hollywood movie "The Day After Tomorrow" depicted an abrupt shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean's circulation and the catastrophic consequences. While Hollywood's vision was over the top, the 2004 movie raised a serious question: If global warming shuts down the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which is crucial for carrying heat from…

Since 1979, Arctic ice has shrunk by 1.35 million square miles, a new JPL study found ice loss in Greenland is far worse than previously thought and Antarctic ice is now at the lowest level since records began. The more they melt, the faster the rate of decline for the ice that remains until we’re faced with a series of catastrophes. The most immediate of which is sea level rise which threatens to eradicate whole nations that are situated on low-lying islands. How do we stop such a problem? While we remedy the longer-term…

Russell Glacier and proglacial area, near Kangerlussuaq, west Greenland. Credit: Jonathan Carrivick An estimated 11,000 sq miles or 28,707 sq kilometers of Greenland's ice sheet and glaciers have melted over the last three decades, according to a major analysis of historic satellite records. The total area of ice loss is equivalent to the size of…