D
Departed
Guest
It really doesn't matter what is causing global warming. What matters is are we able to adapt.
D
Departed
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NASA just snapped the first photos of a mysterious crack in one of Greenland’s largest glaciers
By Chris Mooney April 15
Preliminary DMS image of the new rift in Greenland’s Petermann Glacier, directly beneath the NASA Operation IceBridge aircraft. (Gary Hoffmann/NASA).
This story has been updated.
The first photographs of a new and ominous crack in Greenland’s enormous Petermann Glacier were captured by a NASA airborne mission Friday.
NASA’s Operation IceBridge, which has been flying over northwest Greenland for the past several days, took the photos after being provided coordinates by Stef Lhermitte, a professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, who had spotted the oddly located chasm by examining satellite images.
[In Greenland, a once doubtful scientist witnesses climate change’s troubling toll]
The NASA pictures make clear that a significant new rift has opened near the center of the glacier’s floating ice shelf — an unusual location that raises questions about how it formed. Moreover, this crack is not so distant from another much wider and longer crack that has been slowly extending toward the shelf’s center from its eastern side wall. The two cracks are clearly visible in this image taken from the aircraft:
Oblique photo of a portion of the new rift, near bottom center, on Petermann Glacier’s floating ice shelf and an older curved rift from the flank of the shelf, near top center. The shaded feature near the bottom center is a medial flow line, which may exert a stagnating effect on the propagation of the new rift toward the older one. (Kelly Brunt/NASA)
If the two cracks were to intersect, then a single break would run across more than half of the ice shelf. That might, in turn, cause the piece to begin to break away.
But in the image NASA also noted another feature in the ice that it termed a “medial flow line” that, it said, “may exert a stagnating effect on the propagation of the new rift toward the older one.” So it remains to be seen just how much, and how rapidly, the new rift — which has only just been discovered — could undermine the floating ice shelf.
The Post's Chris Mooney explains what's happening to Petermann Glacier Play Video2:11
Aerial photos of Petermann Glacier reveal new, dangerous cracks in the ice. The Post's Chris Mooney explains what that means for the glacier's future. (The Washington Post)
Still, there’s good precedent for worrying about what could happen at Petermann. When two prior ice islands broke off the glacier in 2010 and 2012 — the 2010 island in particular was extremely large — the events drew major media attention and were even discussed in a hearing before Congress.
“Last week, an ice sheet covering 100 square miles broke off Greenland,” then-Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said at the opening of the hearing in summer 2010. “This giant ice island is more than four times the size of Manhattan. It is the largest piece of Arctic ice to break free in nearly half a century.”
Those past breaks also caused the glacier’s floating ice shelf to become much smaller than it had been before. Here’s a figure, courtesy of Jason Box of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, capturing the glacier’s shrinkage:
(Jason Box)
Petermann Glacier has grown back somewhat since those breaks because of its steady flow outward (at a rate that appears to be accelerating somewhat). But if the next piece breaks off, the red line in the graph above would plunge once again. Box estimated the resulting ice island would be some 50 to 70 square miles in size, or more than twice the size of Manhattan.
NASA’s Operation IceBridge is a research mission in which instrumented aircraft are flown over ice at both poles — both Greenland and Antarctica — to collect data about the state of polar ice and how it is changing. IceBridge operates over Greenland at this time of year and snapped the photos on what appeared to be a crystal-clear day at the glacier.
It has also taken recent photos of other nearby glaciers, such as Heilprin and Upernavik, and the state of floating sea ice in the channel between northwestern Greenland and northeastern Canada, in addition to its extensive data-gathering work.
After seeing the new NASA images, Lhermitte responded that it was “amazing to see the rift from nearby after studying it from space for several days.” But, he added, “From these images alone, it is difficult to already say anything about what exactly caused the crack on this unusual spot.”
The crack appeared in the middle of the floating shelf, rather than on one of its sides, as is typical of this glacier — leading Lhermitte to wonder whether it could have been caused by the ocean waters below the shelf.
You can bet that scientists will be conducting a great deal more research on this crack, what caused it and whether it might precipitate bigger changes to Petermann Glacier.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/15/nasa-just-snapped-the-first-photos-of-a-new-crack-in-one-of-greenlands-largest-glaciers/?utm_term=.0d0894fe7f43
By Chris Mooney April 15
Preliminary DMS image of the new rift in Greenland’s Petermann Glacier, directly beneath the NASA Operation IceBridge aircraft. (Gary Hoffmann/NASA).
This story has been updated.
The first photographs of a new and ominous crack in Greenland’s enormous Petermann Glacier were captured by a NASA airborne mission Friday.
NASA’s Operation IceBridge, which has been flying over northwest Greenland for the past several days, took the photos after being provided coordinates by Stef Lhermitte, a professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, who had spotted the oddly located chasm by examining satellite images.
[In Greenland, a once doubtful scientist witnesses climate change’s troubling toll]
The NASA pictures make clear that a significant new rift has opened near the center of the glacier’s floating ice shelf — an unusual location that raises questions about how it formed. Moreover, this crack is not so distant from another much wider and longer crack that has been slowly extending toward the shelf’s center from its eastern side wall. The two cracks are clearly visible in this image taken from the aircraft:
Oblique photo of a portion of the new rift, near bottom center, on Petermann Glacier’s floating ice shelf and an older curved rift from the flank of the shelf, near top center. The shaded feature near the bottom center is a medial flow line, which may exert a stagnating effect on the propagation of the new rift toward the older one. (Kelly Brunt/NASA)
If the two cracks were to intersect, then a single break would run across more than half of the ice shelf. That might, in turn, cause the piece to begin to break away.
But in the image NASA also noted another feature in the ice that it termed a “medial flow line” that, it said, “may exert a stagnating effect on the propagation of the new rift toward the older one.” So it remains to be seen just how much, and how rapidly, the new rift — which has only just been discovered — could undermine the floating ice shelf.
The Post's Chris Mooney explains what's happening to Petermann Glacier Play Video2:11
Aerial photos of Petermann Glacier reveal new, dangerous cracks in the ice. The Post's Chris Mooney explains what that means for the glacier's future. (The Washington Post)
Still, there’s good precedent for worrying about what could happen at Petermann. When two prior ice islands broke off the glacier in 2010 and 2012 — the 2010 island in particular was extremely large — the events drew major media attention and were even discussed in a hearing before Congress.
“Last week, an ice sheet covering 100 square miles broke off Greenland,” then-Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said at the opening of the hearing in summer 2010. “This giant ice island is more than four times the size of Manhattan. It is the largest piece of Arctic ice to break free in nearly half a century.”
Those past breaks also caused the glacier’s floating ice shelf to become much smaller than it had been before. Here’s a figure, courtesy of Jason Box of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, capturing the glacier’s shrinkage:
(Jason Box)
Petermann Glacier has grown back somewhat since those breaks because of its steady flow outward (at a rate that appears to be accelerating somewhat). But if the next piece breaks off, the red line in the graph above would plunge once again. Box estimated the resulting ice island would be some 50 to 70 square miles in size, or more than twice the size of Manhattan.
NASA’s Operation IceBridge is a research mission in which instrumented aircraft are flown over ice at both poles — both Greenland and Antarctica — to collect data about the state of polar ice and how it is changing. IceBridge operates over Greenland at this time of year and snapped the photos on what appeared to be a crystal-clear day at the glacier.
It has also taken recent photos of other nearby glaciers, such as Heilprin and Upernavik, and the state of floating sea ice in the channel between northwestern Greenland and northeastern Canada, in addition to its extensive data-gathering work.
After seeing the new NASA images, Lhermitte responded that it was “amazing to see the rift from nearby after studying it from space for several days.” But, he added, “From these images alone, it is difficult to already say anything about what exactly caused the crack on this unusual spot.”
The crack appeared in the middle of the floating shelf, rather than on one of its sides, as is typical of this glacier — leading Lhermitte to wonder whether it could have been caused by the ocean waters below the shelf.
You can bet that scientists will be conducting a great deal more research on this crack, what caused it and whether it might precipitate bigger changes to Petermann Glacier.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/15/nasa-just-snapped-the-first-photos-of-a-new-crack-in-one-of-greenlands-largest-glaciers/?utm_term=.0d0894fe7f43
D
Departed
Guest
'It scares me': Permafrost thaw in Canadian Arctic sign of global trend
Buildings in Inuvik being demolished because of shaky foundations
By David Michael Lamb, CBC News Posted: Apr 17, 2017 3:00 AM CT Last Updated: Apr 17, 2017 3:00 AM CT
Jim McDonald, the mayor of Inuvik, stands in front of a warehouse that’s slated for demolition due to melting permafrost, which has shifted the building's foundation.
Jim McDonald, the mayor of Inuvik, stands in front of a warehouse that’s slated for demolition due to melting permafrost, which has shifted the building's foundation. (David Michael Lamb/CBC)
Permafrost thawing faster than previously thought, new study says
Climate change doubles size of lakes in N.W.T. bison sanctuary, reducing habitat
Ice on Arctic lakes melting earlier and earlier each year, recent 14-year study shows
Anthrax outbreak linked to melting of infected reindeer corpse
Thawing permafrost is altering chemistry of northern rivers, researchers say
Canada is melting.
Like a popsicle taken out of the freezer and left on the counter, the permanently frozen ground in the northern reaches of this country is thawing at an ever faster rate.
Half of Canada is blanketed in some form of permafrost, including patches in the northern reaches of Ontario and the Prairie provinces.
But in many places, including around Inuvik, NWT, as much as 90 per cent of this "ground" is actually frozen water. (The rest is dirt, rocks and decomposed organic material that was once trees, shrubs, even animals.)
For years now, buildings in Inuvik have been gradually sinking into the ground as it softens. Others are so unstable, they are literally sliding off their foundations.
Unstable building
This building is now set to be torn down. Some of the stilts that support it have sunk and others have heaved up, leaving the building dangerously unstable. (David Michael Lamb/CBC)
"You can really see the effect of the permafrost," said Inuvik mayor Jim McDonald, standing in front of two warehouses built in the 1980s that are now unsafe to enter and are slated for demolition.
"The seasonal thaw is getting deeper now, and that wreaks havoc."
This is where a local problem becomes a global concern.
Scientists in the Northwest Territories, Alaska and Siberia are now realizing that as the ground under them melts, it will not only make life harder for the people living in the Arctic, but will in fact speed up climate change around the globe.
Temperature swings
The World Meteorological Organisation says the globe is now in uncharted territory, with temperatures in 2016 the hottest ever recorded.
Permafrost thawing faster than previously thought, new study says
Arctic lakes melting earlier and earlier each year, recent 14-year study shows
Effects of climate change can be difficult to spot for most Canadians, but not in Inuvik.
Mackenzie Delta landscape
The landscape of the Mackenzie Delta is a maze of small lakes and rivers. This waterlogged environment has always been one of constant change, but the melting permafrost is now transforming it in ways no one has ever seen. (David Michael Lamb/CBC)
Jim McDonald has lived here his whole life — his father helped build the town when it was created from scratch in the 1950s.
He said that in the Mackenzie River Delta, the cold used to set in by October and stay that way into May. Temperatures would regularly dip to -40 and remain there for weeks at a time.
But McDonald said that in recent years, winters are much warmer and much shorter. It's also more unpredictable. Wild temperature swings are common.
The thaw is destroying buildings, forcing construction crews to change their methods. Buildings used to be hoisted on stilts sunk five or six metres into the ground. Nowadays, said McDonald, "they're finding that they have to go down in the 15- or 20-metre range to get a stable enough foundation."
In melting the permafrost, the changing climate is not only unsettling buildings but making transportation in the region more difficult.
For decades, the community of Tuktoyaktuk, on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, has relied on an ice road from Inuvik in winter. But because of warmer temperatures, the road's season is shorter and faces periodic closures as the ice shifts and becomes unstable.
This spring it will close for good, to be replaced by a permanent gravel road that will be known as the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway.
'It scares me'
Above the Arctic Circle, the permafrost hasn't melted since at least the last Ice Age, more than 10,000 years ago.
Kumari Karunaratne, a permafrost expert who works with the NWT Geological Survey, says the effects of climate change in the north are 'scary.” (David Michael Lamb/CBC)
No one knows exactly what it will unleash when it melts. But no one thinks it will be good.
At the very least, it's changing the landscape. The Mackenzie Delta is a maze of small lakes and broad hillsides. People who live in Inuvik say they don't have to travel far from town in the summer to see craters that formed when the surface layer of land simply collapsed.
They also see entire hillsides that have slid away, and have found entire lakes that have drained — as well as others that have been newly formed.
When permafrost thaws, all the organic material previously trapped in it releases methane into the atmosphere.
Permafrost slump
When permafrost melts, it can cause the land to collapse in dramatic fashion. In this scene from last summer, a drone captured the effects, which included the partial draining of a lake. (NWT Geological Survey)
"It scares me," said Kumari Karunaratne, a permafrost expert who works for the Northwest Territories Geological Survey. "This methane that's being released is being released over huge areas across the north. And it's continually seeping out."
Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. So, as climate change speeds up the permafrost melt, the permafrost melt will exacerbate climate change.
By exactly how much, it's impossible to say. Karunaratne won't even try to guess, because measuring it is difficult and imprecise. The area where it's happening is vast and much of it remains uninhabited and unexplored.
But there are dramatic examples that show just how much methane is bubbling up from underground. Some lakes in the Arctic are so full of it, if you punch a hole in the ice you can light the escaping gas on fire.
YouTube has videos of researchers and others doing it in Alaska and Siberia. But the same thing is happening in the Northwest Territories.
Unleashing other problems
There are other problems, too.
Last summer in Siberia, the unusually intense summer heat melted the permafrost, exposing a reindeer carcass that had been embedded in it.
That carcass was infected with anthrax, a deadly bacteria that had been locked in the ice. A 12-year-old boy died after being infected and at least eight others were sickened.
It opens up the possibility that other dangers could be unleashed.
Siberian researchers say a gravesite in one town contains bodies of people who died of smallpox in the 1890s. They were buried in the soil just above the permafrost, which is now melting. That's raising fears that smallpox, which was eradicated globally in 1977, could make a comeback.
RUSSIA-YAMAL/NENETS
A woman stands with reindeer in the Yamal-Nenets region of Siberia, Russia, where a 12-year-old boy died and 20 people were infected in 2016 after an anthrax outbreak. An unusually intense summer had melted the permafrost, exposing a reindeer carcass containing anthrax. (Denis Sinyakov/Reuters)
Sergey Netesov, chief of the virology laboratory at Novosibirsk State University, told the Siberian Times newspaper that there are thousands of graves in the region — some human, some cattle.
The recent anthrax outbreak, he said, is "reason enough to finance research into the diagnostics and prevention of exceptionally dangerous infections."
Whether that happens or not, people in the Northwest Territories know they have no power to stop climate change.
Global temperatures are already at record levels and the polar regions are feeling the effects more dramatically than anywhere else.
"There are really remarkable changes that are happening in a short amount of time," said Karunaratne.
And there's likely more to come.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/it-scares-me-permafrost-thaw-in-canadian-arctic-sign-of-global-trend-1.4069173
Buildings in Inuvik being demolished because of shaky foundations
By David Michael Lamb, CBC News Posted: Apr 17, 2017 3:00 AM CT Last Updated: Apr 17, 2017 3:00 AM CT
Jim McDonald, the mayor of Inuvik, stands in front of a warehouse that’s slated for demolition due to melting permafrost, which has shifted the building's foundation.
Jim McDonald, the mayor of Inuvik, stands in front of a warehouse that’s slated for demolition due to melting permafrost, which has shifted the building's foundation. (David Michael Lamb/CBC)
Permafrost thawing faster than previously thought, new study says
Climate change doubles size of lakes in N.W.T. bison sanctuary, reducing habitat
Ice on Arctic lakes melting earlier and earlier each year, recent 14-year study shows
Anthrax outbreak linked to melting of infected reindeer corpse
Thawing permafrost is altering chemistry of northern rivers, researchers say
Canada is melting.
Like a popsicle taken out of the freezer and left on the counter, the permanently frozen ground in the northern reaches of this country is thawing at an ever faster rate.
Half of Canada is blanketed in some form of permafrost, including patches in the northern reaches of Ontario and the Prairie provinces.
But in many places, including around Inuvik, NWT, as much as 90 per cent of this "ground" is actually frozen water. (The rest is dirt, rocks and decomposed organic material that was once trees, shrubs, even animals.)
For years now, buildings in Inuvik have been gradually sinking into the ground as it softens. Others are so unstable, they are literally sliding off their foundations.
Unstable building
This building is now set to be torn down. Some of the stilts that support it have sunk and others have heaved up, leaving the building dangerously unstable. (David Michael Lamb/CBC)
"You can really see the effect of the permafrost," said Inuvik mayor Jim McDonald, standing in front of two warehouses built in the 1980s that are now unsafe to enter and are slated for demolition.
"The seasonal thaw is getting deeper now, and that wreaks havoc."
This is where a local problem becomes a global concern.
Scientists in the Northwest Territories, Alaska and Siberia are now realizing that as the ground under them melts, it will not only make life harder for the people living in the Arctic, but will in fact speed up climate change around the globe.
Temperature swings
The World Meteorological Organisation says the globe is now in uncharted territory, with temperatures in 2016 the hottest ever recorded.
Permafrost thawing faster than previously thought, new study says
Arctic lakes melting earlier and earlier each year, recent 14-year study shows
Effects of climate change can be difficult to spot for most Canadians, but not in Inuvik.
Mackenzie Delta landscape
The landscape of the Mackenzie Delta is a maze of small lakes and rivers. This waterlogged environment has always been one of constant change, but the melting permafrost is now transforming it in ways no one has ever seen. (David Michael Lamb/CBC)
Jim McDonald has lived here his whole life — his father helped build the town when it was created from scratch in the 1950s.
He said that in the Mackenzie River Delta, the cold used to set in by October and stay that way into May. Temperatures would regularly dip to -40 and remain there for weeks at a time.
But McDonald said that in recent years, winters are much warmer and much shorter. It's also more unpredictable. Wild temperature swings are common.
The thaw is destroying buildings, forcing construction crews to change their methods. Buildings used to be hoisted on stilts sunk five or six metres into the ground. Nowadays, said McDonald, "they're finding that they have to go down in the 15- or 20-metre range to get a stable enough foundation."
In melting the permafrost, the changing climate is not only unsettling buildings but making transportation in the region more difficult.
For decades, the community of Tuktoyaktuk, on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, has relied on an ice road from Inuvik in winter. But because of warmer temperatures, the road's season is shorter and faces periodic closures as the ice shifts and becomes unstable.
This spring it will close for good, to be replaced by a permanent gravel road that will be known as the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway.
'It scares me'
Above the Arctic Circle, the permafrost hasn't melted since at least the last Ice Age, more than 10,000 years ago.
Kumari Karunaratne, a permafrost expert who works with the NWT Geological Survey, says the effects of climate change in the north are 'scary.” (David Michael Lamb/CBC)
No one knows exactly what it will unleash when it melts. But no one thinks it will be good.
At the very least, it's changing the landscape. The Mackenzie Delta is a maze of small lakes and broad hillsides. People who live in Inuvik say they don't have to travel far from town in the summer to see craters that formed when the surface layer of land simply collapsed.
They also see entire hillsides that have slid away, and have found entire lakes that have drained — as well as others that have been newly formed.
When permafrost thaws, all the organic material previously trapped in it releases methane into the atmosphere.
Permafrost slump
When permafrost melts, it can cause the land to collapse in dramatic fashion. In this scene from last summer, a drone captured the effects, which included the partial draining of a lake. (NWT Geological Survey)
"It scares me," said Kumari Karunaratne, a permafrost expert who works for the Northwest Territories Geological Survey. "This methane that's being released is being released over huge areas across the north. And it's continually seeping out."
Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. So, as climate change speeds up the permafrost melt, the permafrost melt will exacerbate climate change.
By exactly how much, it's impossible to say. Karunaratne won't even try to guess, because measuring it is difficult and imprecise. The area where it's happening is vast and much of it remains uninhabited and unexplored.
But there are dramatic examples that show just how much methane is bubbling up from underground. Some lakes in the Arctic are so full of it, if you punch a hole in the ice you can light the escaping gas on fire.
YouTube has videos of researchers and others doing it in Alaska and Siberia. But the same thing is happening in the Northwest Territories.
Unleashing other problems
There are other problems, too.
Last summer in Siberia, the unusually intense summer heat melted the permafrost, exposing a reindeer carcass that had been embedded in it.
That carcass was infected with anthrax, a deadly bacteria that had been locked in the ice. A 12-year-old boy died after being infected and at least eight others were sickened.
It opens up the possibility that other dangers could be unleashed.
Siberian researchers say a gravesite in one town contains bodies of people who died of smallpox in the 1890s. They were buried in the soil just above the permafrost, which is now melting. That's raising fears that smallpox, which was eradicated globally in 1977, could make a comeback.
RUSSIA-YAMAL/NENETS
A woman stands with reindeer in the Yamal-Nenets region of Siberia, Russia, where a 12-year-old boy died and 20 people were infected in 2016 after an anthrax outbreak. An unusually intense summer had melted the permafrost, exposing a reindeer carcass containing anthrax. (Denis Sinyakov/Reuters)
Sergey Netesov, chief of the virology laboratory at Novosibirsk State University, told the Siberian Times newspaper that there are thousands of graves in the region — some human, some cattle.
The recent anthrax outbreak, he said, is "reason enough to finance research into the diagnostics and prevention of exceptionally dangerous infections."
Whether that happens or not, people in the Northwest Territories know they have no power to stop climate change.
Global temperatures are already at record levels and the polar regions are feeling the effects more dramatically than anywhere else.
"There are really remarkable changes that are happening in a short amount of time," said Karunaratne.
And there's likely more to come.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/it-scares-me-permafrost-thaw-in-canadian-arctic-sign-of-global-trend-1.4069173
Nick Real Deal
Vital Football Legend
I think the earth has had 5 ice ages in its life. So rise and fall in temperature is inevitable over long periods.
Is it right we are still in the last one and coming out of it from about 3 million years ago ?
If the areas of ice are to become inhabitable the population will have to be relocated surely. It's not densely populated. The methane issue is a problem and I will solve that shortly.
Is it right we are still in the last one and coming out of it from about 3 million years ago ?
If the areas of ice are to become inhabitable the population will have to be relocated surely. It's not densely populated. The methane issue is a problem and I will solve that shortly.
Nick Real Deal
Vital Football Legend
There are methane control systems but they are expensive. So I would suggest diverting resources into saving this planet instead of searching in vain for another about a billion years away that might support shrimp life. Or any short range Bransonesque or paypaldudesque pleasure flight bollox.
Nick Real Deal
Vital Football Legend
Or stop developing weapons to wipe us out before methane does.
D
Departed
Guest
I'm looking forward to palm trees around the Great Lakes.
