Petermann Glacier drains about 4 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet as it moves inexorably toward the Arctic Ocean. A new observation and modeling study shows that the glacier is more vulnerable than previously thought to the intrusion of warm ocean water on its underside, leading to accelerated melting and boosting the potential severity of future sea level rise.
“For a long time, we thought of the transition boundary between ice and ocean to be sharp, but it’s not, and in fact it diffuses over a very wide zone, the ‘grounding zone,’ which is several kilometers wide,” said Rignot, who is also a senior research scientist at NASA. “Seawater rises and falls with changes in oceanic tides in that zone and melts grounded ice from below vigorously.”
According to the study, the elongated shape of the grounding zone cavity is a major contributor to accelerated ice melting. In a run of the numerical model taking into account just warmer ocean temperature, the team found thinning of about 40 meters. In a second modeling exercise, an increase in the grounding zone cavity from 2 to 6 kilometers was included, and in that case, ice thinning grew to 140 meters.
Technology Technology Latest News, Technology Technology Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: Gamepur - 🏆 277. / 63 Read more »