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East Antarctica more at risk than thought to long-term thaw: study
Yahoo! News ^ | 5/4/14 | Alister Doyle - Reuters

Posted on 05/04/2014 6:48:36 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

OSLO (Reuters) - Part of East Antarctica is more vulnerable than expected to a thaw that could trigger an unstoppable slide of ice into the ocean and raise world sea levels for thousands of years, a study showed on Sunday.

The Wilkes Basin in East Antarctica, stretching more than 1,000 km (600 miles) inland, has enough ice to raise sea levels by 3 to 4 meters (10-13 feet) if it were to melt as an effect of global warming, the report said.

The Wilkes is vulnerable because it is held in place by a small rim of ice, resting on bedrock below sea level by the coast of the frozen continent. That "ice plug" might melt away in coming centuries if ocean waters warm up.

"East Antarctica's Wilkes Basin is like a bottle on a slant. Once uncorked, it empties out," Matthias Mengel of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, lead author of the study in the journal Nature Climate Change, said in a statement.

Co-author Anders Levermann, also at Potsdam in Germany, told Reuters the main finding was that the ice flow would be irreversible, if set in motion. He said there was still time to limit warming to levels to keep the ice plug in place.

Almost 200 governments have promised to work out a U.N. deal by the end of 2015 to curb increasing emissions of man-made greenhouse gases that a U.N. panel says will cause more droughts, heatwaves, downpours and rising sea levels.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: antarctica; longterm; risk; thaw; unipcc
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To: NormsRevenge

THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING, BUUUUUCCK BUUUCCK, BUCK.


21 posted on 05/04/2014 7:11:22 PM PDT by macglencoe (You see what the left hand is doing, but you should be watching the right hand.)
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To: NormsRevenge
a thaw that could trigger an unstoppable slide of ice into the ocean and raise world sea levels for thousands of years....

Bull$!t. Even if true, there ain't enough ice on the planet to do that. Square area of ice (ave. thickness out of water)spread over the entire square area of ocean?

22 posted on 05/04/2014 7:13:50 PM PDT by umgud
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To: Chode
"ice is ALWAYS moving... feh"

Exactly!

Those luxury Alaskan cruises would have nothing to offer if glaciers didn't break apart into the ocean.

As they have for...THOUSANDS of years.

Sometimes I swear that environmentalists are "young earthers".

23 posted on 05/04/2014 7:14:37 PM PDT by boop (I just wanted a President. But I got a rock.)
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To: NormsRevenge

The only way we’re ever going to stop global warming/cooling/climate change is if we all send a bunch of money to the envirowackos.


24 posted on 05/04/2014 7:17:56 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Obama's smidgens are coming home to roost.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Shit smells exotic and perfume stinks!

the weight of new snow is going to make all the ice fall into the sea!

These jerks couldn’t sell a used car!


25 posted on 05/04/2014 7:19:20 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: NormsRevenge

If and might strike again. Good grief.


26 posted on 05/04/2014 7:19:28 PM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: NormsRevenge

How much melting in Antartica is due to volcanic activity???

Earthquakes deep below West Antarctica reveal an active volcano hidden beneath the massive ice sheet, researchers said today (Nov. 17) in a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience

he discovery finally confirms long-held suspicions of volcanic activity concealed by the vast West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Several volcanoes poke up along the Antarctic coast and its offshore islands, such as Mount Erebus, but this is the first time anyone has caught magma in action far from the coast.

“This is really the golden age of discovery of the Antarctic continent,” said Richard Aster, a co-author of the study and a seismologist at Colorado State University. “I think there’s no question that there are more volcanic surprises beneath the ice.”


27 posted on 05/04/2014 7:21:47 PM PDT by sgtyork (Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy)
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To: sgtyork

Sorry, usually post links.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/1118/Active-volcano-found-buried-in-Antarctica


28 posted on 05/04/2014 7:22:17 PM PDT by sgtyork (Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy)
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To: NormsRevenge

No one has explained to me what caused the end of last ice age! It requires lot of warming to melt many miles thick glaciers parked in the mid-west. So much ice melted it caused formation of the Great Lakes, largest body of fresh water on earth.

May be the cave man burned too many twigs?


29 posted on 05/04/2014 7:22:38 PM PDT by entropy12 (I am sick of people who think Obama is no worse than Romney, as bad as Mitt was.)
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To: NormsRevenge

“if it were to melt”

A big if. Two can play this game: “if Antarctica were to accumulate land ice more than melts elsewhere, it could lead to a dangerous drop in ocean levels.”

As with so many other claims of AGW, the “settled science” of Antarctica losing land ice has been proven false; see:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/09/10/icesat-data-shows-mass-gains-of-the-antarctic-ice-sheet-exceed-losses/

This almost has to be the case. It is well known that the continent has more sea ice (which poses some of its own risks, since sea ice will calve). From where does the sea ice come? It come from land ice moving into the sea. Climatologists invoked all kinds of special explanations to argue simultaneously that Antarctica was gaining sea ice while losing land ice. In hindsight, no special explanations are necessary. It is both gaining sea ice and gaining or at least not losing land ice.


30 posted on 05/04/2014 7:23:13 PM PDT by Redmen4ever
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To: NormsRevenge


It is said that Lake Superior might not thaw until June.  

The ice, snow, and temps have broken all records the last six months.

You mention global warming in these parts and you are looked at like you were dropped at birth and never recovered.

31 posted on 05/04/2014 7:23:53 PM PDT by quantim (Victory is not relative, it is absolute.)
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To: smokingfrog

Because it is in the eastern hemisphere. I looked at a map.


32 posted on 05/04/2014 7:25:46 PM PDT by ThomasThomas (Some learn from others... The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.)
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To: NormsRevenge
The sale of surfboards in Indianapolis are sure to skyrocket.
33 posted on 05/04/2014 7:29:36 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Stalin Blamed The Kulaks,Obama Blames The Tea Party)
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To: umgud

Don’t do the math. This is more important globally.
Do the math says Al when looking at the bank balance.


34 posted on 05/04/2014 7:33:56 PM PDT by glyptol
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To: jsanders2001

No dragons, plagues of locusts, or raining frogs? Given our other problems, I’ve really got my plate full, so I’m not going to “sweat” (so to speak) this.


35 posted on 05/04/2014 7:34:42 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: NormsRevenge
Has anyone considered the possibility that this might cause Antarctica to capsize?
36 posted on 05/04/2014 7:34:48 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Stalin Blamed The Kulaks,Obama Blames The Tea Party)
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To: Redmen4ever
Well by definition Antarctic ice HAS to come from other sources.

People laugh when I tell them that Antarctica is the largest desert on earth.

By definition it is, because it gets virtually NO precipitation. And hasn't for countless millennia.

Unless...GOD put it there! Ooooh...

Again I think that environwhackos HAVE to be "young earthers".

If Antarctica losing ice is a "BIG f'ing deal", then earth can't be THAT old.

37 posted on 05/04/2014 7:36:06 PM PDT by boop (I just wanted a President. But I got a rock.)
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To: entropy12

No, it took a lot of food to keep the Flintmobile going; being made of hardwood and stone, it was quite heavy; and there was a darned good reason other than the technological challenge that the Flintstones’ house didn’t have any glass in the windows, if you know what I mean.

That “greenhouse gas” had to go somewhere.


38 posted on 05/04/2014 7:39:10 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: Gay State Conservative

“Has anyone considered the possibility that this might cause Antarctica to capsize?”

This is why it is basically uninhabited, and few even visit there. You put too many people on it and - there you go, tipped right over.


39 posted on 05/04/2014 7:41:26 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: NormsRevenge

FUD- fear uncertainty doubt. The climate change mantra


40 posted on 05/04/2014 7:41:34 PM PDT by bizdoc (Oh yeah?)
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