The melting of glaciers will significantly raise the level of the oceans

The vast majority of frozen water on Earth is found in large ice shelves in Greenland and, above all, Antarctica. Therefore, when studying the effects of global warming on the rise of the oceans, these places are the center of attention in the glaciers and the ecology.

However, an international team of researchers led by the American Marcus Meier believes that this approach is wrong. "We have shown that glaciers and ice sheets, not the two great ice shelves, are the main culprits of rising sea levels for at least the next generations," said Meier, who signed with colleagues an article published this week in Science and the glaciers.

According to estimates made by the team of scientists, the study shows that the contribution of glaciers and ice sheets is about 60% of the water entering the oceans as a result of global warming. The melting in Greenland contributes about 28% of the total and the Antarctic with only 12%. Paradoxically, the place on earth where there is more ice is the least contributing to rising sea levels, and vice versa.

The future of the Glaciers

Also, Meier and his colleagues believe that in future this trend will be reinforced. As glaciers and ice caps will melt faster and faster, Antarctica will at an increasing rate, but much slower. In fact, estimates suggest that the eastern half lose no ice. Consequently, the share of glaciers and ice caps in the rising seas will be even greater.

2100, and depending on the scenario chosen (with or without acceleration in the melt) rise in sea levels as a result of climate change will be 10 to 25 centimeters. To this must be added that from the other reserves of ice. According to the International Panel on Climate Change, for the year it is expected that sea level has risen between 20 and 50 centimeters.

The ecology and the Glaciers

There are two mechanisms by which global warming destroys the glaciers and ice sheets. On the one hand, the glaciers are moving faster, and throw more ice to the sea. On the other hand, the icebergs from these glaciers and ice caps are melting faster because the ocean water is warmer. In theory, if those ice to melt completely global sea levels would rise one meter.

The glaciers are melting faster than expected

The ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica in the south are losing mass at a rate faster than the predictions had been made so far, this will impact significantly on the rise in global sea level, according to a study released this NASA Wednesday.
The study report suggests that ice sheets are crumbling faster than the glaciers in the mountains and this will be the main factor that contributes to a global rise in sea level, much earlier than expected and the ecology.

The ecology and the glaciers

An example is the following case, in 2006 the Poles lost a combined mass of 475 gigatons per year on average, enough to raise global sea levels by an average of 1.3 millimeters per year compared to they lost 402 gigatons average of the mountain glaciers.

NASA has studied some information from satellites between 1992 and 2009 and subsequently obtained every year during the course of the study, the layers of polar ice caps have lost a combined average of 36.3 gigatons more than the previous year .

It is estimated that "The ice will be the main cause of rising sea level in the future is not surprising, since they have a much larger mass of ice that mountain glaciers," said study author Eric Rignot, University of California.

Glaciers are melting

"The bad news is that the greatest contribution of the ice is already happening," said the scientist who conducted research in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA.
The reports both show that "if current trends continue, it is likely that the increase in sea level is significantly higher than the levels projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 and the ecology."

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The future of glaciers

The satellites have shown a more accurate picture of rapid weight loss that are suffering the ice off the coast of Greenland and Antarctica. This finding, published in the journal Nature, will enable more accurate predictions about future sea level rise that can cause this phenomenon linked to climate change and the ecology.

The deepest ice loss is due to accelerated melting of glaciers at the time that they meet the sea, according to a group of researchers from the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Bristol (Southern England) . In reaching this conclusion, the researchers analyzed millions of measurements of the huge ice sheets of both Antarctica and Greenland provided by NASA.

The glaciers and the ecology

The experts saw this "dynamic thinning 'glaciers experiencing now reaches all latitudes in Greenland, has intensified along the coast of Antarctica, is penetrating into the interior of ice sheets and is spreading in the form of thin layers ice due to melting of the ocean and the ecology.
The scientist Hamish Pritchard, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said that the "surprise" that these discoveries have led the researchers saw a pattern as strong thinning of glaciers in coastal areas as large. "

The Future of the Glaciers

"We think the most likely cause it has a faster flow on the glacier is due to the warm currents of the ocean when they reach the shores and melt the glacier," he says.
The expert admits that the phenomenon of melting is not yet well understood so it "remains the most unpredictable of the rise in sea level in the future and the ecology."