Earthquake of magnitude 6 strikes Crete, Greece, GFZ says
May 22 (Reuters) - An earthquake of magnitude 6 struck off the coast of Crete, Greece, on Thursday, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) said.
The quake was at a depth of 77 km (47.85 miles), GFZ said.
GFZ had earlier assigned a magnitude of 6.5 to the earthquake.
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They are also beautiful in their own right, forming some of our world's most inspiring landscapes just as much as canyons, valleys and reefs. But by 2003 the glacier had diminished to 0.1 sq mile (0.28 sq km) and became a series of small disconnected relic glacier ice patches before vanishing entirely. An even more recent one to have disappeared is the Sarenne Glacier, which was in the Grandes Rousses mountain area of southeast France. As recently as the 1980s, Sarenne's ice was still as thick as 260 feet (80 metres) in some places, but its melting accelerated considerably in recent decades leading to its loss in 2023. Among those still in existence – at least for now – are the Yala Glacier of Nepal, which is 'Critically Endangered' and expected to vanish in the 2040s. The area of the Yala Glacier decreased from 0.9 sq mile (2.42 sq km) in 1981 to 0.5 sq mile (1.54 sq km) in 2015 – a decrease of 36 per cent. 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As the tool explains, thousands of glaciers have already disappeared due to human-caused climate change, which is directly linked to fossil fuel use – but there is no comprehensive list of all of them. In an accompanying piece published in the journal Science, Professors Howe and Boyer warn that 'melting glaciers are a signal of climate disruption'. 'Earth has now entered a new period in which glaciers are not simply retreating but are disappearing altogether,' they say. 'Consequences of glacial loss have a variety of effects on natural and social environments on a planetary level.' Glacier melting contributes to rising sea levels, affects water resources downstream, damages ecosystems, increases the risk of natural disasters, and can compound other natural hazards such as increasing the formation of icebergs. HOW IS GLOBAL WARMING AFFECTING GLACIAL RETREAT? Global warming is causing the temperatures all around the world to increase. This is particularly prominent at latitudes nearer the poles. Rising temperatures, permafrost, glaciers and ice sheets are all struggling to stay in tact in the face of the warmer climate. As temperatures have risen to more than a degree above pre-industrial levels, ice continues melt. For example, melting ice on the Greenland ice sheet is producing 'meltwater lakes', which then contribute further to the melting. This positive feedback loop is also found on glaciers atop mountains. Many of these have been frozen since the last ice age and researchers are seeing considerable retreat. Some animal and plant species rely heavily on the cold conditions that the glaciers provide and are migrating to higher altitudes to find suitable habitat. This is putting severe strain on the ecosystems as more animals and more species are living in an ever-shrinking region. On top of the environmental pressure, the lack of ice on mountains is vastly increasing the risks of landslides and volcanic eruptions. The phenomena is found in several mountain ranges around the world. It has also been seen in regions of Antarctica.
