In recent years, there have been notable changes in the annual ice accumulation patterns all over the world. Most importantly there has been a focus on Greenland with respect to its glaciers and their impact on sea-level rise. It has been found in several studies that Greenland is seeing faster than typical rates of warming and thus glacial melting than most any other place on earth (Bekryaev, 2010). Given the significant volume of ice held within glaciers on Greenland, there is a hugely significant volume of water that should be concerning for the population the world over should it begin to make its way into the oceans. Not only is the melting of the ice sheet concerning regarding raw sea-level, but the dumping of large amounts of the freshwater glaciers into the ocean could severely upset the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean, with devastating effects. The receding of glaciers and their feedback effects could also have implications on regulating heat temperature globally.
…show more content…
This essay will explore these three areas of research in an effort to gain a better understanding of each of these three possible effects of glacial retreat in Greenland and their implications regionally and globally. Retreat, Melting and Sea Level Rise In a 10-year longitudinal study of 199 Greenlandic terminal marine glaciers, from 2000-2010, it was found that over this entire decadal period only 11 glaciers out of the group showed overall advance, with the other 188 glaciers monitored during the study having receded a total of 267km. There were, of course variations in growth and retreat patterns according to the location of the glaciers and the annual temperatures and precipitation. These rates of glacial mass loss are not seen in the ice record until the last deglaciation period ~10kya (Vasskog, Langebroek, Andrews, Nilsen, Nesje, 2015), and even then it is uncertain that the melting rate was comparable to the shorter scale melting seen in recent decades. Greenland’s glaciers are particularly susceptible to atmospheric and oceanic perturbations such as temperature increases (Nick, Vieli, Andersen, Joughin, Payne, Edwards, Pattyn, Roderik, van de Wal, 2013). It is thought that a warmer ocean helps melt the submarine ice and break it off from the the ground-anchored ice on the shore. Or the reason for increased calving could come from the top of the ice sheet with rivers of surface meltwater that could fracture the glaciers or penetrate to the bedrock under the ice sheet, acting as a lubricant and allowing the glacier to travel faster with less resistance (Nick et Al., 2013). The latter catalyst for iceberg calving is being thought to become a more and more influential player in the glacial world. A study published in January 2016 has remarked that due to warmer summers and higher levels of surface meltwater, glaciers are unable to keep up with their natural regulation mechanisms, particularly firn. The study (Machguth, MacFerrin, van As, Box, Charalampidis, Colgan, Fausto, Meijer, Mosely-Thompson, 2016) finds that the glacier’s natural spring meltwater regulatory system of porous firn is being quickly depleted and then capped off, with the winter freeze, giving the spring and summer meltwater nowhere to go but into the ocean, contributing much more heavily to sea level rise than many models had previously predicted. Researchers have found the mass loss on the Greenland Ice Sheet to have quadrupled from it’s 1991-2001 rate of 51±65Gt/yr-1 to 211±37Gt/yr-1 from 2002-2011. This increase in melting has allowed the Greenland ice sheet to be a contributor to 25% of observed sea level rise in this same period (Straneo, Heimbach, 2013). In the future, models have predicted for the Greenland ice sheet to contribute 1.9-3cm of sea level rise by 2200, given a warming of 2.8º (Nick et Al., 2013). Other models have predicted as much as a rise of 7.5cm due to the melting of the Greenland ice sheet by 2100 (Gillet-Chaulet, Gagliadini, Seddik, Nodet, Durand, Ritz, Zwinger, Vaughan, 2012). Models put the projected sea level rise due to Greenland’s melting ice sheet all over the map in terms of numbers. They predict numbers
This essay will explore these three areas of research in an effort to gain a better understanding of each of these three possible effects of glacial retreat in Greenland and their implications regionally and globally. Retreat, Melting and Sea Level Rise In a 10-year longitudinal study of 199 Greenlandic terminal marine glaciers, from 2000-2010, it was found that over this entire decadal period only 11 glaciers out of the group showed overall advance, with the other 188 glaciers monitored during the study having receded a total of 267km. There were, of course variations in growth and retreat patterns according to the location of the glaciers and the annual temperatures and precipitation. These rates of glacial mass loss are not seen in the ice record until the last deglaciation period ~10kya (Vasskog, Langebroek, Andrews, Nilsen, Nesje, 2015), and even then it is uncertain that the melting rate was comparable to the shorter scale melting seen in recent decades. Greenland’s glaciers are particularly susceptible to atmospheric and oceanic perturbations such as temperature increases (Nick, Vieli, Andersen, Joughin, Payne, Edwards, Pattyn, Roderik, van de Wal, 2013). It is thought that a warmer ocean helps melt the submarine ice and break it off from the the ground-anchored ice on the shore. Or the reason for increased calving could come from the top of the ice sheet with rivers of surface meltwater that could fracture the glaciers or penetrate to the bedrock under the ice sheet, acting as a lubricant and allowing the glacier to travel faster with less resistance (Nick et Al., 2013). The latter catalyst for iceberg calving is being thought to become a more and more influential player in the glacial world. A study published in January 2016 has remarked that due to warmer summers and higher levels of surface meltwater, glaciers are unable to keep up with their natural regulation mechanisms, particularly firn. The study (Machguth, MacFerrin, van As, Box, Charalampidis, Colgan, Fausto, Meijer, Mosely-Thompson, 2016) finds that the glacier’s natural spring meltwater regulatory system of porous firn is being quickly depleted and then capped off, with the winter freeze, giving the spring and summer meltwater nowhere to go but into the ocean, contributing much more heavily to sea level rise than many models had previously predicted. Researchers have found the mass loss on the Greenland Ice Sheet to have quadrupled from it’s 1991-2001 rate of 51±65Gt/yr-1 to 211±37Gt/yr-1 from 2002-2011. This increase in melting has allowed the Greenland ice sheet to be a contributor to 25% of observed sea level rise in this same period (Straneo, Heimbach, 2013). In the future, models have predicted for the Greenland ice sheet to contribute 1.9-3cm of sea level rise by 2200, given a warming of 2.8º (Nick et Al., 2013). Other models have predicted as much as a rise of 7.5cm due to the melting of the Greenland ice sheet by 2100 (Gillet-Chaulet, Gagliadini, Seddik, Nodet, Durand, Ritz, Zwinger, Vaughan, 2012). Models put the projected sea level rise due to Greenland’s melting ice sheet all over the map in terms of numbers. They predict numbers