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The longest core of rock ever extracted from beneath Greenland’s thick ice could hold clues about how quickly the island’s frozen covering will melt as the planet warms.Preliminary analysis of the rock and associated sediment suggests that, at some time in the past three million years or so, the material in this core was exposed to air. That means that the ice atop it had melted away, at least temporarily.The work adds to a small but growing cadre of studies that use Greenland’s bedrock to illuminate how unstable the overlying ice has been in the past…Using the latest equipment, the...

Current models used by many climate scientists estimate global sea levels could rise by between 1 and 2 meters by the end of this century. The Durham researchers used detailed geological sea-level data and state-of-the-art modeling techniques to reveal the sources of the dramatic five-century sea level rising event. Comparable to melting an ice sheet twice the size of Greenland, it resulted in the flooding of vast areas of low-lying land and disrupted ocean circulation, with knock-on effects for global climate, they said. "Our study includes novel information from lakes around the coast of Scotland that were isolated from the...

During the past 2.6 million years, Earth’s climate has alternated between warm periods known as interglacials, when conditions were similar to those of today, and cold glacials, when ice sheets spread across North America and northern Europe. Before about 1 million years ago, the warm periods recurred every 40,000 years, but after that, the return period lengthened to an average of about 100,000 years. It has often been suggested that a decline in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide was responsible for this fundamental change. Writing in Nature, Yan et al.1 report the first direct measurements of atmospheric CO2 concentrations...

Arctic sea ice not melting: new research By BOB WEBER-- The Canadian Press  IQALUIT, Nunavut (CP) -- A Canadian scientist is pouring cold, unfrozen water on the notion that global warming is melting arctic sea ice like a Popsicle at the beach.  Greg Holloway galvanized an international meeting of arctic scientists Tuesday by saying there is little evidence of a rapid decline of the volume of ice in the northern oceans.  Despite breathless media reports and speculation of an ice-free Northwest Passage, he suggests that it's far more likely that the ice has just been moved around in the...

PARIS (AFP) – Global warming may wipe out three-quarters of Europe's alpine glaciers by 2100 and hike sea levels by four metres (13 feet) by the year 3000 through melting the West Antarctic icesheet, two studies published on Sunday said. The research places the spotlight on two of the least understood aspects of climate change: how, when and where warming will affect glaciers on which many millions depend for their water, and the problems faced by generations in the far distant future. The glacier study predicts that mountain glaciers and icecaps will shrink by 15-27 percent in volume terms on...

Earthquake activity is frozen by ice sheets 11 March 2008 NewScientist.com news service Can you put a freeze on earthquakes? It seems so, according to a computer model showing that earthquakes happen less often in areas covered by ice caps. Trouble is, quakes come back with a vengeance when the ice melts. Andrea Hampel at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, and colleagues wondered why Scandinavia experienced a surge in tectonic activity around 9000 years ago, whereas few earthquakes occur there today. They realised that the earthquake flurry coincided with the melting of the Fennoscandian ice sheet, which blanketed the area...

LONDON (AFP) - Global warming could cause ice at both poles of the Earth to start melting this century, driving up sea levels, according to a major study published by the British government. The study, "Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change", collates evidence presented by scientists at a conference staged a year ago ahead of the 2005 Group of Eight (G8) summit, where Britain placed global warming high on the agenda. British Prime Minister Tony Blair added his voice to the warning on Monday. "It is clear from the work presented that the risks of climate change may well be greater than...