Latest news with #WestAntarctic
Time of India
2 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
Antarctica Ice Mass: Study finds unusual ice mass gain in Antarctica amid global climate concerns; here's more
As the world progresses, so does the climate crisis, and often in the most unexpected ways. Scientists have reported a surprising shift in the southernmost region of the planet. Antarctica has gained ice mass for the first time in decades! Just imagine the shift! What is it about? In a recent study published in , from 2021 to 2023, the Antarctic Ice Sheet underwent an accelerated increase in mass. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Researchers at Tongji University in Shanghai, led by Dr. Wang and Prof. Shen, say this was due to particularly dense snowfall during the period. The scientists used data from NASA's GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite missions, which track the Earth's gravitational field to create maps of mass change. Antarctica is estimated to have gained 108 billion tons of ice annually for the past two years, a dramatic turnaround from the decades of long-term losses in the previous decades. From 2002 to 2010, Antarctica lost around 74 billion tons annually. The rate accelerated to one of nearly 142 billion tons annually from 2011 to 2020, primarily due to melting in the West Antarctic and East Antarctic coastlines. Researchers had long forecast the melting ice on the continent would leave a quantifiable impact on raising global sea levels. The recent spike is not necessarily an indication of lasting recovery, however. Experts warn that it could be a short-term shift and not a reversal of the general warming trend. While the increase in ice mass is good news, it's likely due to transient weather and not a sign that climate change is reversing," a climate scientist unrelated to the study added. "Antarctic ice remains very sensitive to long-term warming, especially at the margins." In the meantime, the Arctic remains beset with portentous indicators of disrepair. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now To our surprise, Arctic sea ice cover hit a record low winter level in March 2025 at 14.33 million square kilometers, NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported. This surpasses the latest low in 2017, once again showing the spectacular changes in the north polar region. The diverging polar trends remind us that climate change is complex and can occur differently in various regions. Scientists refer to the necessity of ongoing monitoring and investigation of changing dynamics of Earth's cryosphere. The researchers attribute this rebound to unusual increases in precipitation, which led to an accumulation of snow and ice. In May 2025, experts warned that current forecasts may underestimate the impact of subglacial water, which develops when the ice sheet melts at its base owing to glacier movement or geothermal heat from bedrock. They anticipated that subglacial water will contribute 2.2 meters (7.2 feet) to sea-level rise by 2300.
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Science
- Irish Examiner
Author interview: Finding new life among the hidden worlds at the ‘Ends of the Earth'
During the late 1960s, John H Mercer set out on an epic adventure: To map the sequence of rock formations in Reedy Glacier, in West Antarctica. On his field trip, the British glaciologist noticed a strange phenomenon: There were layers of sediments typical of those found at the bottom of lakes. It led Mercer to come up with a new working hypothesis: Approximately 120,000 years ago, the high-altitude site where he was carrying out his research held lakes instead of glaciers. Mercer's logic implied that during warm periods, the West Antarctic ice sheet melts completely, only to re-form during cold periods. Mercer explored this idea further in a scientific paper he published in 1968, but nobody paid attention. A decade later, Mercer published another paper in the science journal Nature. 'If the global consumption of fossil fuels continues to grow… atmospheric CO2 content will double in about 50 years,' he wrote. 'Climatic models suggest that the resultant greenhouse-warming effect will be greatly magnified in high latitudes… and could start rapid deglaciation of West Antarctica, leading to a 5m rise in sea level.' The scientific community denounced Mercer as an attention-seeking alarmist. From 1978, until his death nine years later, the British scientist struggled to get grants to support his research. Mercer was a visionary, but his ambitious ideas did not fit with a commonly held consensus among climate scientists. Up until the beginning of the millennium, most of them believed that Antarctica — the Earth's fifth largest but least populated continent — was a stable bulwark against changes in ice. Today, American palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin describes Mercer as 'an amazing field geologist'. 'Mercer said the world is at a tipping point, and if we keep increasing global temperatures, we are setting ourselves up for dramatic changes with the ice in West Antarctica, and by extension, global sea levels,' the 64-year-old scientist explains from his office at the University of Chicago — where he is currently a professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy. 'Mercer's peers thought Antarctica was very stable. Unfortunately, though, as research continued over time, it turns out Mercer was probably right. 'Three decades ago in Antarctica, we were losing, say, 80 gigatons of ice per year. But now we are losing about 280 gigatons per year.' Moving ice shapes the world Shubin's book examines how moving ice shapes the world. He notes, for instance, that polar regions encompass 8% of the total surface of the Earth and that almost 70% of all the planet's fresh water is frozen in ice. Expeditions to the polar regions are now a matter of urgency. 'The Arctic is heating five to seven times faster than the rest of the globe, and there are now open spaces of water where ice was previously,' he says. 'In Antarctica, melting ice is less visible to the naked eye.' In fact, Antarctica is witnessing the slowest temperature rise on Earth, but for complex reasons. As the oceans warm, Antarctica's surface temperatures stay relatively cool. This disparity in temperature amplifies a wind current, which swirls around Antarctica and carries 170 times more water than all of the Earth's rivers combined. With that water comes heat. The change in the circumpolar current brings more warm seawater to the coast of Antarctica, causing the coastal glaciers to melt from below, where the ice meets the ocean. The glaciers then fragment and collapse into the sea. Shrinking glaciers, of course, mean rising seas. The British Antarctic Survey along with the US Antarctic Program, have collaborated on research to help us understand those glaciers in West Antarctica. 'Specifically, with robots looking underneath the ice, and with satellite images, and with studies of the ice, both in the air and in the water. They confirm that in West Antarctica there is a lot to worry about,' says Shubin. Drilling in ice in Antarctica has also shed light on another idea geographers and scientists have been speculating about since the mid-19th century: Underneath the ice of the region sit entire worlds sealed off from Earth's surface. We now have a detailed understanding of these hidden worlds, via decades of research that has been carried out by scientists from numerous countries at Lake Vostok. The largest subglacial lake in Antarctica has a surface area of more than 14,000sq km and a depth of more than 800m. Glaciologists have reasons to believe that Lake Vostok may have been separated from the world above for over 15m years, Shubin explains. During the late 1990s, a group of Russian, French, and American scientists set off on an international science trip to drill a core to get down to Lake Vostok. On that occasion, though, the team stopped drilling about 400ft above where they expected liquid water. But even at that depth, the ice samples they recovered displayed special properties. John Priscu, from Montana State University, later received one of those samples. Putting them under high-powered microscopes, Priscu surmised that there were about 100,000 microbes per millilitre of ice. Those findings inspired Priscu to hunt for more life elsewhere in Antarctica. For logistical reasons Priscu decided to move his research to Lake Whillans: A subglacial lake in Antarctica that sits 480km from the South Pole. Using a drill sterilised by UV light and hydrogen peroxide, Priscu and his team sampled the waters of Lake Whillans, which were then examined back in the lab. DNA sequencing revealed nearly 4,000 species living in Lake Whillans under the ice. The subglacial microbes were diverse, thriving, and part of a complex web of ecological interactions. 'These are living creatures that have been separated from the sun, for millennia, if not millions of years,' Shubin explains. And these creatures exchange information with other lakes underneath. 'We don't know much about these worlds and how these creatures survive. There is probably a wide diversity of microbial lifeforms that we can barely imagine under there.' If life can thrive and survive under the ice in Antarctica, it might also be possible it can thrive in extraterrestrial environments too. Shubin mentions Europa, the fourth largest of Jupiter's 95 moons, and, Saturn's moon, Enceladus: A small icy world that has geyser-like jets spewing water vapour and ice particles into space. 'Both of these places have ice on the exterior and fresh water underneath the ice, which make them two promising candidates for places in our solar system to expect microbial life,' Shubin explains. 'Understanding life under the ice in Antarctica gives us a model to think possible alien life outside our own planets.' Closer to home, however, there are more urgent matters to be concerned about, Shubin warns. Global warming means our planet is undoubtedly entering an era of uncertainty. Shubin cites one scientific study which estimates that sea levels could rise as much as 10ft globally in the next century, if the planet warms more than three degrees Fahrenheit. 'Geological engineering is one option we might have to peruse if we cannot, as [a global community] get carbon emissions under control,' says Shubin. 'But the reality is that the choices we make for the future will make a difference. Not just for us. But for future generations. 'We need to keep global conversations alive and international science collaboration going,' Shubin concludes. 'Antarctica and the Arctic are warming, and polar treaties are straining as fast as ice melts and species disappear. 'Our fragile window for understanding the cosmos, the planet, and ourselves is closing, so we need to act now.' Read More Book review: Revealing the dangers and thrill of polar exploration leaves a deadly chill
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Humanity could be just 3 years away from crossing a dire climate threshold, report warns
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Record greenhouse gas emissions could exhaust Earth's "carbon budget" in as little as three years, dooming the planet to breach the symbolic threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warming. Global warming of 2 C (3.6 F) is considered an important threshold — warming beyond this greatly increases the likelihood of devastating and irreversible climate breakdown that include extreme heatwaves, droughts and the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nearly 200 countries pledged to limit global temperature rises to ideally 1.5 C and safely below 2 C. Yet, according to a new assessment by more than 60 of the world's leading climate scientists, this target is quickly moving out of reach — only 143 billion tons (130 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide remains before we have likely exceeded the Paris Agreement target, and humanity is already releasing over 46 billion tons (42 billion metric tons) each year. The researchers published their findings June 19 in the journal Earth System Science Data. "The window to stay within 1.5 C is rapidly closing," study co-author Joeri Rogelj, a professor of climate science and policy at Imperial College London, said in a statement. "Global warming is already affecting the lives of billions of people around the world. Every small increase in warming matters, leading to more frequent, more intense weather extremes." Warnings that the Earth is careening beyond the 1.5 C limit, and the dire consequences that would follow from such a breach, are not new. In 2020, the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated Earth's remaining climate budget to be around 550 billion tons (500 billion metric tons). Related: Earth's energy imbalance is rising much faster than scientists expected — and now researchers worry they might lose the means to figure out why Yet with emissions reaching record highs in the years since, and the next IPCC report not due until 2029, the scientists behind the new annual study wanted to fill the gap. The paper made its assessment by looking at 10 indicators of climate change, including net greenhouse gas emissions, Earth's energy imbalance, surface temperature changes, sea-level rises, global temperature extremes, and the remaining budget. The scientists' analysis makes for alarming reading, with warming occurring at a rate of about 0.49 F (0.27 C) each decade and the world standing at about 2.2 F (1.24 C) above preindustrial averages. This is causing extra heat to accumulate at more than double the rate seen in the 1970s and 1980s, and Earth is trapping heat 25% faster in this decade than it did in the last. Around 90% of this excess heat is being trapped in the oceans, disrupting marine ecosystems, melting ice and causing sea levels to rise at double the rate they were in the 1990s. RELATED STORIES —Climate wars are approaching — and they will redefine global conflict —Kids born today are going to grow up in a hellscape, grim climate study finds —Global carbon emissions reach new record high in 2024, with no end in sight, scientists say "Since 1900, the global mean sea level has risen by around 228 mm. This seemingly small number is having an outsized impact on low-lying coastal areas, making storm surges more damaging and causing more coastal erosion, posing a threat to humans and coastal ecosystems," co-author Aimée Slangen, a climatologist at the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, said in the statement. "The concerning part is that we know that sea-level rise in response to climate change is relatively slow, which means that we have already locked in further increases in the coming years and decades." The consequences of this warming are likely to hit humanity hard, with one recent study suggesting that yields of key crops such as maize and wheat in the U.S., China and Russia could drop by up to 40% before the end of the century. Another study has suggested an unprecedented global increase in drought severity is already underway, with 30% of Earth's land area experiencing moderate to extreme drought in 2022. Nonetheless, the report also stressed that global greenhouse gas emissions will likely peak this decade before decreasing. But for this to happen, we must continue to rapidly adopt wind, solar and other clean energy sources, while drastically reducing carbon emissions, the authors noted. "Emissions over the next decade will determine how soon and how fast 1.5°C of warming is reached," Rogelj said. "They need to be swiftly reduced to meet the climate goals of the Paris Agreement."
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Why glaciologists believe the Birch Glacier collapsed, burying a nearby Swiss town
A village in the Swiss Alps has been buried beneath ice, rock and mud after a massive piece of a nearby glacier collapsed. On Wednesday, a landslide from the mountain side of Birch Glacier -- located in the Lötschental valley in northern Switzerland -- flattened homes in the Alpine town of Blatten after a large chunk of the glacier broke off, Bethan Davies, a professor of glaciology at Newcastle University in the U.K., told ABC News. MORE: How penguin poop can help to mitigate climate change The collapse occurred as a result of a "cascading disaster," Davies said. There is also concern of flooding in the River Lonza due to the debris from the landslide. The mountain side of the glacier had been unstable since last week, when millions of pounds of rock debris fell onto the glacier surface, Davies said. The load, along with warm temperatures on Monday, accelerated the glacier's collapse, Swiss Radio and Television reported. "This is a marked acceleration," Davies said. "Lots of cracks started to form, a sign of the tension in the ice." MORE: Disappearing glaciers will give way to emerging, 'novel' ecosystems, new research finds Emergency managers had been observing increased glacier melt at Birch Glacier, ordering hundreds of villagers to evacuate after debris from the mountain behind the glacier crumbled days before the catastrophic collapse. The collapse likely occurred as a result of permafrost thawing underneath and along the sidewalls surrounding the glacier, Mathieu Morlighem, a glaciologist at Dartmouth College, told ABC News. The permanently frozen soil is the "glue" that keeps the mountain rock stable, but as temperatures warm, the permafrost melts and destabilizes the mountain, Morlighem said, adding that a similar event happened in the Silvretta Alps in Switzerland in 2023. The Birch Glacier was "much worse" due to the amount of ice and meltwater, which caused a deluge of ice, mud and rock to damage the picturesque village of Blatten. MORE: Climate change is making climbing in the Himalayas more challenging, experts say The dangers of glacial degradation range from a sudden catastrophic collapse to formation of lakes that burst through their natural dams and cause havoc, which has happened in the Himalayas and Andes mountain ranges, Sridhar Anandakrishnan, a glaciologist at Pennsylvania State University, told ABC News. "I think we can expect more events like this in the future," Morlighem said. Video of the mudslide shows large mounds of debris racing down the mountain before burying the village of Batten. Satellite images above the town show where mud and debris cover areas where buildings once stood. MORE: It may be too late to prevent significant melting on West Antarctic ice shelf that includes 'Doomsday Glacier': Study Search-and-rescue teams were searching for a missing 64-year-old man, but the search was suspended on Thursday afternoon after authorities deemed the debris mounds too unstable, Reuters reported. One resident told Reuters that she "lost everything" in the mudslide. Another said, "You can't tell that there was ever a settlement there." While scientists are cautious about attributing single events to climate change, glaciologists have been concerned about the impact of climate change on glaciers in Switzerland in recent decades. Mountain landslides are more common in a warming climate, Davies said. In addition, increased rainfall in a warming climate can melt permafrost and change the number of freeze-thaw cycles, which can also exacerbate landslides, Davies said. Climate change is causing dramatic changes in mountain glaciers in Europe and all over the world, Davies pointed out. At least one-third of European Alps glacier loss will be gone by 2050, even without further warming, according to a 2024 report from the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative. "What happened to Birch Glacier is what we would expect from rising temperatures in the Alps and elsewhere," Morlighem said. MORE: Antarctic sea ice has reached a record low for the year, researchers say Glaciers in Switzerland have lost almost 40% of their volume since 2000, and the loss is accelerating, according to the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research. Record-high summer temperatures in 2022 and 2023 caused a 10% glacial ice loss in the country. The average temperature in the Swiss Alps has risen by 3 degrees Celsius since the 1970s, Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich, said during an interview in March. "Switzerland's glaciers could vanish completely by 2100," Farinotti said. The melting of Switzerland's glaciers could result in long-term reductions in the country's water supply, according to the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research. Melting may also contribute to rising sea levels in the next century, climate scientists say. A quarter of Switzerland's glaciers could be saved if global warming is kept to under a 2-degree Celsius rise, the experts said. Why glaciologists believe the Birch Glacier collapsed, burying a nearby Swiss town originally appeared on
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
How penguin poop can help to mitigate climate change
Penguins could be playing a crucial role in stabilizing the climate in Antarctica when they go No. 2, according to new research. The ammonia in penguin guano -- or poop -- could help to reduce the impacts of climate change by contributing to increased cloud formation, a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment on Thursday found. Penguins, a key species in Antarctica, are "major emitters" of ammonia, according to the paper. When the ammonia reacts with gases that contain sulfur species emitted from phytoplankton in the ocean, it increases the creation of aerosols, which give water vapor a surface to condense upon and leads to cloud formation, Matthew Boyer, a researcher at the University of Helsinki's Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research and lead author of the paper, told ABC News. "They have a synergistic role for the formation of particles in the atmosphere," Boyer said. MORE: Antarctic iceberg the size of Chicago breaks off, reveals thriving undersea ecosystem The clouds can then act as an insulation in the atmosphere, helping to reduce surface temperatures, which in turn prevents the sea ice from melting, according to the paper. The smell of ammonia is quite distinct when in the proximity of penguin colonies, Boyer said. The researchers spent two months from January to March 2023 measuring the concentration of ammonia in the air near a colony of 60,000 Adelie penguins at Marambio Base in Antarctica. They observed that when the wind blew from the direction of the colony, the ammonia concentration increased to more than 1,000 times higher than the baseline value, according to the paper. Ammonia concentrations remained more than 100 times the baseline even after the penguins migrated from the area, as the poop left behind continued to emit ammonia, the researchers said. MORE: Meet Pesto, the internet's favorite fuzzy baby penguin The scientists recorded several additional atmospheric measurements on a single day to confirm that the increase in ammonia concentration affected aerosol particle concentration, according to the paper. They found that when the wind blew from the penguin colony, the number and size of aerosol particles sharply increased. A fog that remained three hours after the wind charged was likely a result of the increased concentration of aerosol particles, the researchers said. The poop is likely helping to reduce the impacts of climate change on the continent, further highlighting the necessity of protecting native ecosystems and biodiversity, which are critical to mitigating climate change. "What we have demonstrated is that there is a deep connection between ecosystem processes -- being the ocean phytoplankton activity as well as penguins -- and atmospheric processes that can have an impact on the local climate," Boyer said. MORE: It may be too late to prevent significant melting on West Antarctic ice shelf that includes 'Doomsday Glacier': Study As the local climate in Antarctica changes and evolves, it will have an influence on climate systems in the rest of the world, Boyer said. The ice, ocean and ecosystems in Antarctica play a critical role in regulating global temperatures, scientists say. But researchers are closely watching as climate change causes rapid melt of ice on the continent, due to its contribution in helping to drive important ocean currents, slow global warming and acting as a carbon sink. The western portion of the continent is in particular peril of ice shelf retreat. The region includes the Thwaites glacier, nicknamed the "Doomsday Glacier," which could contribute to 10 feet of sea level rise if it were to melt. Thwaites is among the fastest-changing glaciers in the region. "Really, understanding what's happening locally in Antarctica ... allows us to predict how things could change in the future for other regions of the planet too," Boyer said. How penguin poop can help to mitigate climate change originally appeared on
