Glacial extent (main)

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Glacial extent


  • Earth's Changing Ice Cover Featured Article Earth's Changing Ice Cover Earth's Changing Ice Cover
    This article, written by Charles W. Schmidt, a freelance writer specializing in science, medicine and technology, appeared first in Environmental Health... More »
  • Arctic sea ice: lowest extent for 2011 Featured News Article Arctic sea ice: lowest extent for 2011 Sea ice
    As the sun sets over the Arctic Ocean and the air and water cool, sea ice begins its annual freeze-up. Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its minimum extent for the... More »
Recently Updated
Alaskaicefield04 103.jpg Pacific Coastal Mountain icefields and tundra Last Updated on 2014-05-13 19:12:00 WWF Terrestrial Ecoregions Collection The Pacific Coastal Mountain Icefields and Tundra ecoregion consists of a steep, very rugged range of mountains that stretches from the Kenai Penninsula along the Gulf of Alaska Coast and the Canadian/Alaskan border to the southern end of the Alaska panhandle. In Canada, this ecoregion encompasses the extreme southwestern corner of the Yukon Territory and parts of the coastal mountains in British Columbia south to Portland Inlet. Elevations range from sea level to over 4,500 meters (m), and slopes generally are steeper than seven degrees, ranging to over 20 degrees. The landscape of this ecoregion is dominated by mountains of great height. Most peaks reach between 2,100 m and 3,050 m, but some are over 5000 m (Mount Logan is 5,959 m, and King Peak is 5,175 m). In this high, extreme northern part of the... More »
Arctic Jakobshavn Isbrae UnivWash.jpg Greenland glaciers and rising sea level Last Updated on 2012-05-08 00:00:00 Researchers determine that although glaciers continue to increase in velocity, the rate at which they can dump ice into the ocean is limited. Analysis of Speed of Greenland Glaciers Gives New Insight for Rising Sea Level Changes in the speed that ice travels in more than 200 outlet glaciers indicates that Greenland's contribution to rising sea level in the 21st century could be significantly less than the upper limits some scientists thought possible. The finding comes from a paper funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA and published in the May 4, 2012, issue of the journal Science. While the study indicates that a melting Greenland's contributions to rising sea levels could be less than expected, researchers concede that more work needs to be done before any definitive trend can be identified. Studies like this one are designed to examine... More »
Pine Island Rift NASA-DMS.jpg Antarctic ice shelf rift: Pine Island Glacier Last Updated on 2011-11-05 00:00:00 Watching the Birth of an Iceberg After discovering an emerging crack that cuts across the floating ice shelf of Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica, NASA's Operation IceBridge flew a follow-up mission and made the first-ever detailed airborne measurements of a major iceberg calving in progress. NASA's Operation Ice Bridge, the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown, is in the midst of its third field campaign from Punta Arenas, Chile. The six-year mission will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. Pine Island Glacier last calved a significant iceberg in 2001, and some scientists have speculated recently that it was primed to calve again. But until an Oct. 14 IceBridge flight of NASA's DC-8, no one had seen any evidence of the ice shelf beginning to break apart. Since then, a... More »
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