Glaciers dominate eustatic sea-level rise in the 21st century

Ice loss to the sea currently accounts for virtually all of the sea-level rise that is not attributable to ocean warming, and about 60% of the ice loss is from glaciers and ice caps rather than from the two ice sheets. The contribution of these smaller glaciers has accelerated over the past decade, in part due to marked thinning and retreat of marine-terminating glaciers associated with a dynamic instability that is generally not considered in mass-balance and climate modeling. This acceleration of glacier melt may cause 0.1 to 0.25 meter of additional sea-level rise by 2100.     

Glacial earthquakes

We have detected dozens of previously unknown, moderate earthquakes beneath large glaciers. The seismic radiation from these earthquakes is depleted at high frequencies, explaining their nondetection by traditional methods. Inverse modeling of the long-period seismic waveforms from the best-recorded earthquake, in southern Alaska, shows that the seismic source is well represented by stick-slip, downhill sliding of a glacial ice mass. The duration of sliding in the Alaska earthquake is 30 to 60 seconds, about 15 to 30 times longer than for a regular tectonic earthquake of similar magnitude.     

Accelerated sea-level rise from West Antarctica

Recent aircraft and satellite laser altimeter surveys of the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica show that local glaciers are discharging about 250 cubic kilometers of ice per year to the ocean, almost 60% more than is accumulated within their catchment basins. This discharge is sufficient to raise sea level by more than 0.2 millimeters per year. Glacier thinning rates near the coast during 2002-2003 are much larger than those observed during the 1990s. Most of these glaciers flow into floating ice shelves over bedrock up to hundreds of meters deeper than previous estimates, providing exit routes for ice from further inland if ice-sheet collapse is under way.     

Movement directions in late paleozoic glacial rocks of the horlick and pensacola mountains, antarctica

Striae and associated structures beneath and within the Buckeye Tillite in the Ohio Range of the Horlick Mountains show that Permian(?) glaciers moved toward the west-southwest. Striae in the Wisconsin Range of the Horlicks display similar orientation, but the sense of movement could not be determined. Paleoglaciers in the Neptune Range and the Cordiner Peaks of the Pensacola Mountains moved toward the south-southwest with some dispersion. Paleocurrents flowed parallel to ice motion in the Ohio Range and in the Pensacolas, but they also flowed toward the north-northeast in the Pensacolas.     

Contribution of the Patagonia Icefields of South America to sea level rise

Digital elevation models of the Northern and Southern Patagonia Icefields of South America generated from the 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission were compared with earlier cartography to estimate the volume change of the largest 63 glaciers. During the period 1968/1975-2000, these glaciers lost ice at a rate equivalent to a sea level rise of 0.042 +/- 0.002 millimeters per year. In the more recent years 1995-2000, average ice thinning rates have more than doubled to an equivalent sea level rise of 0.105 +/- 0.011 millimeters per year. The glaciers are thinning more quickly than can be explained by warmer air temperatures and decreased precipitation, and their contribution to sea level per unit area is larger than that of Alaska glaciers.     

Ancient biomolecules from deep ice cores reveal a forested southern Greenland

It is difficult to obtain fossil data from the 10% of Earth's terrestrial surface that is covered by thick glaciers and ice sheets, and hence, knowledge of the paleoenvironments of these regions has remained limited. We show that DNA and amino acids from buried organisms can be recovered from the basal sections of deep ice cores, enabling reconstructions of past flora and fauna. We show that high-altitude southern Greenland, currently lying below more than 2 kilometers of ice, was inhabited by a diverse array of conifer trees and insects within the past million years. The results provide direct evidence in support of a forested southern Greenland and suggest that many deep ice cores may contain genetic records of paleoenvironments in their basal sections.     

Antarctica: measuring glacier velocity from satellite images

Many Landsat images of Antarctica show distinctive flow and crevasse features in the floating part of ice streams and outlet glaciers immediately below their grounding zones. Some of the features, which move with the glacier or ice stream, remain visible over many years and thus allow time-lapse measurements of ice velocities. Measurements taken from Landsat images of features on Byrd Glacier agree well with detailed ground and aerial observations. The satellite-image technique thus offers a rapid and cost-effective method of obtaining average velocities, to a first order of accuracy, of many ice streams and outlet glaciers near their termini.     

Glacier surge after ice shelf collapse

The possibility that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will collapse as a consequence of ice shelf disintegration has been debated for many years. This matter is of concern because such an event would imply a sudden increase in sea level. Evidence is presented here showing drastic dynamic perturbations on former tributary glaciers that fed sections of the Larsen Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula before its collapse in 1995. Satellite images and airborne surveys allowed unambiguous identification of active surging phases of Boydell, Sj?gren, Edgeworth, Bombardier, and Drygalski glaciers. This discovery calls for a reconsideration of former hypotheses about the stabilizing role of ice shelves.     

Widespread complex flow in the interior of the antarctic ice sheet

It has been suggested that as much as 90% of the discharge from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is drained through a small number of fast-moving ice streams and outlet glaciers fed by relatively stable and inactive catchment areas. Here, evidence obtained from balance velocity estimates suggests that each major drainage basin is fed by complex systems of tributaries that penetrate up to 1000 kilometers from the grounding line into the interior of the ice sheet. This finding has important consequences for the modeled or estimated dynamic response time of past and present ice sheets to climate forcing.     

Seasonal speedup along the western flank of the Greenland Ice Sheet

It has been widely hypothesized that a warmer climate in Greenland would increase the volume of lubricating surface meltwater reaching the ice-bedrock interface, accelerating ice flow and increasing mass loss. We have assembled a data set that provides a synoptic-scale view, spanning ice-sheet to outlet-glacier flow, with which to evaluate this hypothesis. On the ice sheet, these data reveal summer speedups (50 to 100%) consistent with, but somewhat larger than, earlier observations. The relative speedup of outlet glaciers, however, is far smaller (<15%). Furthermore, the dominant seasonal influence on Jakobshavn Isbrae's flow is the calving front's annual advance and retreat. With other effects producing outlet-glacier speedups an order of magnitude larger, seasonal melt's influence on ice flow is likely confined to those regions dominated by ice-sheet flow.     

Ice scour disturbance in Antarctic waters

The West Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming regions on Earth, and, as a consequence, most maritime glaciers and ice shelves in the region have significantly retreated over the past few decades. We collected a multiyear data set on ice scouring frequency from Antarctica by using unique experimental markers and scuba diving surveys. We show that the annual intensity of ice scouring is negatively correlated with the duration of the winter fast ice season. Because fast ice extent and duration is currently in decline in the region after recent rapid warming, it is likely that marine benthic communities are set for even more scouring in the near future.     

Detection of water in the LCROSS ejecta plume

Several remote observations have indicated that water ice may be presented in permanently shadowed craters of the Moon. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission was designed to provide direct evidence. On 9 October 2009, a spent Centaur rocket struck the persistently shadowed region within the lunar south pole crater Cabeus, ejecting debris, dust, and vapor. This material was observed by a second "shepherding" spacecraft, which carried nine instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, and a radiometer. Near-infrared absorbance attributed to water vapor and ice and ultraviolet emissions attributable to hydroxyl radicals support the presence of water in the debris. The maximum total water vapor and water ice within the instrument field of view was 155 ± 12 kilograms. Given the estimated total excavated mass of regolith that reached sunlight, and hence was observable, the concentration of water ice in the regolith at the LCROSS impact site is estimated to be 5.6 ± 2.9% by mass. In addition to water, spectral bands of a number of other volatile compounds were observed, including light hydrocarbons, sulfur-bearing species, and carbon dioxide.     

北方旱地用行间振动深松机的设计与试验

深松作业在不大范围翻动土壤的前提下能有效改善土壤的多项理化性质,是实现耕作可持续发展的重要措施.针对一般深松机具结构不合理、作业时牵引阻力大的问题,设计了一种基于振动减阻原理的深松机,确定了深松铲、曲柄连杆机构、切茬圆盘刀、限深轮和机架等部件的主要结构参数.田间试验表明,该机设计合理,田间通过性强,在对北方玉米旱地进行30 cm耕深的深松时,相比无振动深松机具,机具的牵引阻力下降约21.24％,减阻效果明显.     

Near-synchronous interhemispheric termination of the last glacial maximum in mid-latitudes

Isotopic records from polar ice cores imply globally asynchronous warming at the end of the last glaciation. However, 10Be exposure dates show that large-scale retreat of mid-latitude Last Glacial Maximum glaciers commenced at about the same time in both hemispheres. The timing of retreat is consistent with the onset of temperature and atmospheric CO2 increases in Antarctic ice cores. We suggest that a global trend of rising summer temperatures at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum was obscured in North Atlantic regions by hypercold winters associated with unusually extensive winter sea ice.     

Pleistocene collapse of the west antarctic ice sheet

Some glacial sediment samples recovered from beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet at ice stream B contain Quaternary diatoms and up to 10(8) atoms of beryllium-10 per gram. Other samples contain no Quaternary diatoms and only background levels of beryllium-10 (less than 10(6) atoms per gram). The occurrence of young diatoms and high concentrations of beryllium-10 beneath grounded ice indicates that the Ross Embayment was an open marine environment after a late Pleistocene collapse of the marine ice sheet.     

Global sea level and Earth rotation

Recent analyses of long time scale secular variations of sea level, based on tide gauge observations, have established that sea level is apparently rising at a globally averaged rate somewhat in excess of 1 millimeter per year. It has been suggested that the nonsteric component of this secular rate might be explicable in terms of ongoing mass loss from the small ice sheets and glaciers of the world. Satellite laser ranging and very long baseline interferometry data may be used to deliver strong constraints on this important scenario because of the information that these systems provide on variations of the length of day and of the position of the rotation pole with respect to the earth's surface geography. These data demonstrate that the hypothesis of mass loss is plausible if the Barents Sea was covered by a substantial ice sheet at the last maximum of the current ice age 18,000 years ago.     

Pleistocene glaciation on st. George, pribilof islands

A small ice cap (covering about 12 square kilometers) and at least two-probably four-cirque glaciers (each covering less than 1 square kilometer) occurred on St. George Island, Pribilof Islands, probably during the Illinoian; Glaciation. Snowbanks persisted during a later cold cycle, probably during the Wisconsin Glaciation, with no glaciers existing. We found no evidence of glaciation on other Pribilof islands.     

沙槽设计与纵向插草测试研究

为了研究草沙障铺设过程中插入阻力和牵引的大小和影响因素,并为固沙装备铺设系统和牵引动力系统设计提供理论参数,本研究设计并搭建了草沙障插入装置试验平台,对刀盘在沙地中插草过程进行了参数化建模,分析了刀盘各运动状态下的受力因素,并进行了参数化计算和公式推导,建立了不同运动状态下插入阻力和牵引力平衡方程。结果表明,通过单因素和正交试验研究,铺设速度对插入阻力和牵引力大小并无明显影响,但是插入深度和铺设厚度对两者影响显著。建立插入阻力和牵引阻力与插入深度、铺设厚度、铺设速度之间的回归模型,通过分析回归模型和响应面结果最终得出影响插入阻力的因素主次顺序为铺设厚度和插入阻力,影响牵引力的因素主次为插入深度和铺设厚度。将实际测量值与理论模型计算值比较,最后得出相近程度达到98%左右。     

Retreating glacier fronts on the Antarctic Peninsula over the past half-century

The continued retreat of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula has been widely attributed to recent atmospheric warming, but there is little published work describing changes in glacier margin positions. We present trends in 244 marine glacier fronts on the peninsula and associated islands over the past 61 years. Of these glaciers, 87% have retreated and a clear boundary between mean advance and retreat has migrated progressively southward. The pattern is broadly compatible with retreat driven by atmospheric warming, but the rapidity of the migration suggests that this may not be the sole driver of glacier retreat in this region.     

Remote sensing of the fram strait marginal ice zone

Sequential remote sensing images of the Fram Strait marginal ice zone played a key role in elucidating the complex interactions of the atmosphere, ocean, and sea ice. Analysis of a subset of these images covering a 1-week period provided quantitative data on the mesoscale ice morphology, including ice edge positions, ice concentrations, floe size distribution, and ice kinematics. The analysis showed that, under light to moderate wind conditions, the morphology of the marginal ice zone reflects the underlying ocean circulation. High-resolution radar observations showed the location and size of ocean eddies near the ice edge. Ice kinematics from sequential radar images revealed an ocean eddy beneath the interior pack ice that was verified by in situ oceanographic measurements.