Glacial ice and rising sea levels
glacial ice is melting adding to the oceans volume. As long as the trend is in place and not reversing, shorelines will be going under.
Every month there are astronomical high tides. My brothers house has the harbor/river rise to the top of his 3 foot high wall during these monthly astronomical tides. If a tide gets 1 foot higher than that, his basement will be full and his house will look like an island once a month. Kind of scary seeing that tide that lasts for about 3 days every month.
Grounded ice is ice resting on the ground rather than floating. The melting of floating ice will not change sea level: the mass of this ice is equal to that of the water it displaces - compare the water level in a covered glass of water with floating ice cubes before and after they melt.
There is a lot of ice resting on top of Antarctica, a land mass. The north pole ice cap is a floater.
"...scientists estimate that if Greenland's ice sheet melts, seas would rise 23 feet -- 40 feet if West Antarctica's ice also melts. ..."
http://scarborough.esva.net/NewDocs/The_Eastern_Shore_News___Picardi_5_12_07.doc
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Coastal areas of Greenland may melt, but they only cover a small area because Greenland is surrounded by mountains. Here is a Greenland before ice, and how much there is today.
The Greenland icecap contains 1/8th of the total global ice-mass. The total ice-mass on earth is 30 million. cubic km; Antarctica has 27 million.cubic km; Greenland 2.5 million. cubic km.
The mean height of the Greenland icecap: 2135 meters; 65% of the area lies above 2000 meters; That is why Greenland deserves the name most extreme highland in the world.
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From 1996 to 2000, widespread Greenland glacial acceleration was found at latitudes below 66 degrees north. This acceleration extended to 70 degrees north by 2005. The researchers estimated the ice mass loss resulting from enhanced glacier flow increased from 63 cubic kilometers in 1996 to 162 cubic kilometers in 2005. Combined with the increase in ice melt and in snow accumulation over that same time period, they determined the total ice loss from the ice sheet increased from 96 cubic kilometers in 1996 to 220 cubic kilometers in 2005. To put this into perspective, a cubic kilometer is one trillion liters (approximately 264 billion gallons of water), about a quarter more than Los Angeles uses in one year.
Glacier acceleration has been the dominant mode of mass loss of the ice sheet in the last decade. From 1996 to 2000, the largest acceleration and mass loss came from southeast Greenland. From 2000 to 2005, the trend extended to include central east and west Greenland.
"In the future, as warming around Greenland progresses further north, we expect additional losses from northwest Greenland glaciers, which will then increase Greenland's contribution to sea level rise," Rignot said.
Source: NASA
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The two recent programs on PBS NOVA "Dimming of the Sun" and the catastrophic melting of ice dams in the recent past and in geological times are alarming when applied to Greenland's ice melting. If the first program is correct, then we can expect the global warming to be much higher than now - once India and China clean up their air pollution. According to the dimming of the sun program, the sun has been dimmed 10% since the 1950's due to air pollution and this has caused a cooling effect that has canceled the global warming effect. Once the air pollution is stopped, the warming will take over and be rapid, easily reaching the necessary 3 degrees in a few years that is needed to melt Greenland's ice. The second article that is important is the way ice reacts when under the tremendous pressure of its own weight. The weight of the ice causes it to melt. It must be at a lower temperature to freeze when under pressure. This means that as the ice in Greenland warms up, it will begin to melt from the bottom up and not the top down as is usually assumed. The base foundation will become melted and the whole mass of ice could then melt and travel on a bed of water, and with the rapid fracturing and heating of the ice due to motion, the entire ice in Greenland could melt and slide into the ocean in a huge wave of rapid ice flows. This happened in Canada after the last ice age. This ice flow will be of biblical proportions, swamping cities overnight if it were to all go at once as it is likely to do. This is the most likely scenario because the water will build up underneath the ice - out of sight - and then let go in one major catastrophic event. Now that you see how the physics works, how can you believe in the theory of a slow and benign melting of Greenland's ice? The geological evidence points and warning signs point to a major world wide catastrophe that may occur in the not too distant future.
http://www.physorg.com/news10948.html
------
(Venus, which has an atmosphere that consists of 90 percent carbon dioxide, is 500 degrees Celsius warmer than it would be without the CO2 layer.)
What we have done is enhance the greenhouse effect by adding an infrared absorber, namely CO2
Yes H2O, NO2, SO2 and CH4 are infrared absorbers too and we are raising these concentrations as well. However, the atmosphere's ability to hold these is limited as they precipitate out (except methane). Whats true though is that a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor. Now there's a positive feed back loop thats making infrared trapping worse.
Americans eat 90,000 cows a day! (CowProtection.com) There is an ever increasing number of farting cows, lol
The bulk of Earth's atmosphere is comprised of N2 (4/5ths) and O2 (1/5) These diatomic molecules absorb and re-emit light wavelengths, not infrared wavelengths like tri-atomic molecules. This is why the sky lights up blue as that is the preferred absorbed wavelength, second it green. When the sun is at high noon there is only 100 miles of atmosphere between us and the sun. Since the blue has been scattered out yellow (red+green) remains. When the sun is near the horizon the sun rays travel through some 8,000 miles of atmosphere scattering out all the green as well as the blue wavelengths. That leaves the red we see. On the moon, the sun appears white as none of the component color wavelengths are scattered
R+G+B = W
btw, water vapor scatters all light wavelengths as well infrared. Hence the sky whitens or appears hazy when the humidity is high.
glacial ice is melting adding to the oceans volume. As long as the trend is in place and not reversing, shorelines will be going under.
Every month there are astronomical high tides. My brothers house has the harbor/river rise to the top of his 3 foot high wall during these monthly astronomical tides. If a tide gets 1 foot higher than that, his basement will be full and his house will look like an island once a month. Kind of scary seeing that tide that lasts for about 3 days every month.
Grounded ice is ice resting on the ground rather than floating. The melting of floating ice will not change sea level: the mass of this ice is equal to that of the water it displaces - compare the water level in a covered glass of water with floating ice cubes before and after they melt.
There is a lot of ice resting on top of Antarctica, a land mass. The north pole ice cap is a floater.
"...scientists estimate that if Greenland's ice sheet melts, seas would rise 23 feet -- 40 feet if West Antarctica's ice also melts. ..."
http://scarborough.esva.net/NewDocs/The_Eastern_Shore_News___Picardi_5_12_07.doc
---
Coastal areas of Greenland may melt, but they only cover a small area because Greenland is surrounded by mountains. Here is a Greenland before ice, and how much there is today.
The Greenland icecap contains 1/8th of the total global ice-mass. The total ice-mass on earth is 30 million. cubic km; Antarctica has 27 million.cubic km; Greenland 2.5 million. cubic km.
The mean height of the Greenland icecap: 2135 meters; 65% of the area lies above 2000 meters; That is why Greenland deserves the name most extreme highland in the world.
------
From 1996 to 2000, widespread Greenland glacial acceleration was found at latitudes below 66 degrees north. This acceleration extended to 70 degrees north by 2005. The researchers estimated the ice mass loss resulting from enhanced glacier flow increased from 63 cubic kilometers in 1996 to 162 cubic kilometers in 2005. Combined with the increase in ice melt and in snow accumulation over that same time period, they determined the total ice loss from the ice sheet increased from 96 cubic kilometers in 1996 to 220 cubic kilometers in 2005. To put this into perspective, a cubic kilometer is one trillion liters (approximately 264 billion gallons of water), about a quarter more than Los Angeles uses in one year.
Glacier acceleration has been the dominant mode of mass loss of the ice sheet in the last decade. From 1996 to 2000, the largest acceleration and mass loss came from southeast Greenland. From 2000 to 2005, the trend extended to include central east and west Greenland.
"In the future, as warming around Greenland progresses further north, we expect additional losses from northwest Greenland glaciers, which will then increase Greenland's contribution to sea level rise," Rignot said.
Source: NASA
---------
The two recent programs on PBS NOVA "Dimming of the Sun" and the catastrophic melting of ice dams in the recent past and in geological times are alarming when applied to Greenland's ice melting. If the first program is correct, then we can expect the global warming to be much higher than now - once India and China clean up their air pollution. According to the dimming of the sun program, the sun has been dimmed 10% since the 1950's due to air pollution and this has caused a cooling effect that has canceled the global warming effect. Once the air pollution is stopped, the warming will take over and be rapid, easily reaching the necessary 3 degrees in a few years that is needed to melt Greenland's ice. The second article that is important is the way ice reacts when under the tremendous pressure of its own weight. The weight of the ice causes it to melt. It must be at a lower temperature to freeze when under pressure. This means that as the ice in Greenland warms up, it will begin to melt from the bottom up and not the top down as is usually assumed. The base foundation will become melted and the whole mass of ice could then melt and travel on a bed of water, and with the rapid fracturing and heating of the ice due to motion, the entire ice in Greenland could melt and slide into the ocean in a huge wave of rapid ice flows. This happened in Canada after the last ice age. This ice flow will be of biblical proportions, swamping cities overnight if it were to all go at once as it is likely to do. This is the most likely scenario because the water will build up underneath the ice - out of sight - and then let go in one major catastrophic event. Now that you see how the physics works, how can you believe in the theory of a slow and benign melting of Greenland's ice? The geological evidence points and warning signs point to a major world wide catastrophe that may occur in the not too distant future.
http://www.physorg.com/news10948.html
------
(Venus, which has an atmosphere that consists of 90 percent carbon dioxide, is 500 degrees Celsius warmer than it would be without the CO2 layer.)
What we have done is enhance the greenhouse effect by adding an infrared absorber, namely CO2
Yes H2O, NO2, SO2 and CH4 are infrared absorbers too and we are raising these concentrations as well. However, the atmosphere's ability to hold these is limited as they precipitate out (except methane). Whats true though is that a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor. Now there's a positive feed back loop thats making infrared trapping worse.
Americans eat 90,000 cows a day! (CowProtection.com) There is an ever increasing number of farting cows, lol
The bulk of Earth's atmosphere is comprised of N2 (4/5ths) and O2 (1/5) These diatomic molecules absorb and re-emit light wavelengths, not infrared wavelengths like tri-atomic molecules. This is why the sky lights up blue as that is the preferred absorbed wavelength, second it green. When the sun is at high noon there is only 100 miles of atmosphere between us and the sun. Since the blue has been scattered out yellow (red+green) remains. When the sun is near the horizon the sun rays travel through some 8,000 miles of atmosphere scattering out all the green as well as the blue wavelengths. That leaves the red we see. On the moon, the sun appears white as none of the component color wavelengths are scattered
R+G+B = W
btw, water vapor scatters all light wavelengths as well infrared. Hence the sky whitens or appears hazy when the humidity is high.
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