Melting ice cap triggering earthquakes

[Clancy]

The Greenland ice cap is melting so quickly that it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometres in size break off.

Scientists monitoring events this summer say the acceleration could be catastrophic in terms of sea-level rise and make predictions this February by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change far too low.

The glacier at Ilulissat, which supposedly spawned the iceberg that sank the Titantic, is now flowing three times faster into the sea than it was 10 years ago.

Robert Corell, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, said in Ilulissat yesterday: "We have seen a massive acceleration of the speed with which these glaciers are moving into the sea. The ice is moving at 2 metres an hour on a front 5km [3 miles] long and 1,500 metres deep. That means that this one glacier puts enough fresh water into the sea in one year to provide drinking water for a city the size of London for a year."

He is visiting Greenland as part of a symposium of religious, scientific, and political leaders to look at the problems of the island, which has an ice cap 3km thick containing enough water to raise worldwide sea levels by seven metres.

Yesterday Christian, Shia, Sunni, Hindu, Shinto, Buddhist and Jewish religious leaders took a boat to the tongue of the glacier for a silent prayer for the planet. They were invited by Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.

Dr Corell, director of the global change programme at the Heinz Centre in Washington, said the estimates of sea level rise in the IPCC report were based on data two years old. The predicted rise this century was 20-60cm (about 8-24ins) , but it would be at the upper end of this range at a minimum, he said, and some believed it could be two metres. This would be catastrophic for European coastlines.

He had flown over the Ilulissat glacier and "seen gigantic holes in it through which swirling masses of melt water were falling. I first looked at this glacier in the 1960s and there were no holes. These so-called moulins, 10 to 15 metres across, have opened up all over the place. There are hundreds of them."

This melt water was pouring through to the bottom of the glacier creating a lake 500 metres deep which was causing the glacier "to float on land. These melt-water rivers are lubricating the glacier, like applying oil to a surface and causing it to slide into the sea. It is causing a massive acceleration which could be catastrophic."

The glacier is now moving at 15km a year into the sea although in surges it moves even faster. He measured one surge at 5km in 90 minutes - an extraordinary event.

Veli Kallio, a Finnish scientist, said the quakes were triggered because ice had broken away after being fused to the rock for hundreds of years. The quakes were not vast - on a magnitude of 1 to 3 - but had never happened before in north-west Greenland and showed potential for the entire ice sheet to collapse.

Dr Corell said: "These earthquakes are not dangerous in themselves but the fact that they are happening shows that events are happening far faster than we ever anticipated."

https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/08/climatechange

[jaywilder]

Hi,

This is my very first ever post on a BB ... any BB. I am a greenie.

Anyway, I have been reading about the ice caps melting really fast. George Hogaland says that according to NASA information, the whole solar system is heating up. All of the plantes have measurably risen in temperatures.

My theory is that we are entering a glactic influence that is heating up the core or our Earth. Earth is going up in vibration and this is causing the Earth to heat up. It's an idea, yet it could be that is what is happening. I like it better than it's us tiny humans and messing up and our misuse of technology. Either way we are in for some changes.. community is going to be very valueable if the "s... hits the fan". Any one got an Ark?

Jay
:heart:


The Greenland ice cap is melting so quickly that it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometres in size break off.

Scientists monitoring events this summer say the acceleration could be catastrophic in terms of sea-level rise and make predictions this February by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change far too low.

The glacier at Ilulissat, which supposedly spawned the iceberg that sank the Titantic, is now flowing three times faster into the sea than it was 10 years ago.

Robert Corell, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, said in Ilulissat yesterday: "We have seen a massive acceleration of the speed with which these glaciers are moving into the sea. The ice is moving at 2 metres an hour on a front 5km [3 miles] long and 1,500 metres deep. That means that this one glacier puts enough fresh water into the sea in one year to provide drinking water for a city the size of London for a year."

He is visiting Greenland as part of a symposium of religious, scientific, and political leaders to look at the problems of the island, which has an ice cap 3km thick containing enough water to raise worldwide sea levels by seven metres.

Yesterday Christian, Shia, Sunni, Hindu, Shinto, Buddhist and Jewish religious leaders took a boat to the tongue of the glacier for a silent prayer for the planet. They were invited by Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.

Dr Corell, director of the global change programme at the Heinz Centre in Washington, said the estimates of sea level rise in the IPCC report were based on data two years old. The predicted rise this century was 20-60cm (about 8-24ins) , but it would be at the upper end of this range at a minimum, he said, and some believed it could be two metres. This would be catastrophic for European coastlines.

He had flown over the Ilulissat glacier and "seen gigantic holes in it through which swirling masses of melt water were falling. I first looked at this glacier in the 1960s and there were no holes. These so-called moulins, 10 to 15 metres across, have opened up all over the place. There are hundreds of them."

This melt water was pouring through to the bottom of the glacier creating a lake 500 metres deep which was causing the glacier "to float on land. These melt-water rivers are lubricating the glacier, like applying oil to a surface and causing it to slide into the sea. It is causing a massive acceleration which could be catastrophic."

The glacier is now moving at 15km a year into the sea although in surges it moves even faster. He measured one surge at 5km in 90 minutes - an extraordinary event.

Veli Kallio, a Finnish scientist, said the quakes were triggered because ice had broken away after being fused to the rock for hundreds of years. The quakes were not vast - on a magnitude of 1 to 3 - but had never happened before in north-west Greenland and showed potential for the entire ice sheet to collapse.

Dr Corell said: "These earthquakes are not dangerous in themselves but the fact that they are happening shows that events are happening far faster than we ever anticipated."

https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/08/climatechange

[Dynamique]

Ummmm... an increase in solar activity and energy output seems like a much more likely candidate! Regardless of the cause, you're right about the sh*t hitting the fan and the value of a self-sufficient community (ark).


Hi,
This is my very first ever post on a BB ... any BB. I am a greenie.
Anyway, I have been reading about the ice caps melting really fast. George Hogaland says that according to NASA information, the whole solar system is heating up. All of the plantes have measurably risen in temperatures.
My theory is that we are entering a glactic influence that is heating up the core or our Earth. Earth is going up in vibration and this is causing the Earth to heat up. It's an idea, yet it could be that is what is happening. I like it better than it's us tiny humans and messing up and our misuse of technology. Either way we are in for some changes.. community is going to be very valueable if the "s... hits the fan". Any one got an Ark?
Jay :heart:

[Barry]

...Any one got an Ark?I think one was posted last week! :wink: Yep, community is going to be more important! And I hope WaccoBB.net will be a very useful tool to help us work together!

[Moon]

Interesting idea, and i won't rule it out. The thing is, though, the source of information
is presumably committed to supporting Bush et al. in their protection of the poor, dear
megatycoons (Is it coincidence that this word is so much like megatyphoons?)
from anything that might slightly reduce their continued intake of more money than they,
their children and their grandchildren could spend.


Hi,

This is my very first ever post on a BB ... any BB. I am a greenie.

Anyway, I have been reading about the ice caps melting really fast. George Hogaland says that according to NASA information, the whole solar system is heating up. All of the planets have measurably risen in temperatures.

My theory is that we are entering a galactic influence that is heating up the core or our Earth. Earth is going up in vibration and this is causing the Earth to heat up. It's an idea, yet it could be that is what is happening. I like it better than it's us tiny humans and messing up and our misuse of technology. Either way we are in for some changes.. community is going to be very valuable if the "s... hits the fan". Any one got an Ark?

Jay
:heart:

[Clancy]

The responses to this article make me sad. Humanity is fouling it's own nest and a catastrophe is unfolding at an ever increasing pace and we simply don't have what it takes to do anything about it in any meaningful way.

[mykil]

Unfortunately being sad won't cut it Clancy, humanity has done this, and we were all apart of it, even YOU. The best thing we can do is preparation at this point. Do you think? I for one am waiting in anticipation for the newly arriving rainfall each year. Just think NO MORE DROUGHT! LOL! My anticipation is vast, I am not sure what to expect, one hell of a lot more water, what can we do in preparation to defend ourselves from all this water coming our way? What will the real tally be? If we are expecting another thirty feet in our oceans won’t there be allot more drinking water available? LOL! I feel in our lifetimes we have already seen some dramatic changes, and it appears there are a lot more on the horizon. Will the fish in the oceans be able to adapt to the fresh water melting into there own world? Will our governments be able to disperse the amount of citizens that will be getting really wet and having to pull back and lose every thing they own? Is this going to be far better than another ICE AGE? Just think in another few thousand years someone will whining about how cold it is getting and how humans have made it really cold out!




The responses to this article make me sad. Humanity is fouling it's own nest and a catastrophe is unfolding at an ever increasing pace and we simply don't have what it takes to do anything about it in any meaningful way.

[Clancy]

Unfortunately being sad won't cut it Clancy, humanity has done this, and we were all apart of it, even YOU. The best thing we can do is preparation at this point. Do you think?...

No, the best thing we could do is drastically reduce the carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases we are emitting, and my sadness comes from knowing we aren't going to.

[Braggi]

I for one am waiting in anticipation for the newly arriving rainfall each year. Just think NO MORE DROUGHT! LOL! My anticipation is vast, I am not sure what to expect, one hell of a lot more water, what can we do in preparation to defend ourselves from all this water coming our way? What will the real tally be? If we are expecting another thirty feet in our oceans won’t there be allot more drinking water available? LOL!


Mykil, you are sadly misinformed that rising sea levels will somehow create more fresh water. What will actually happen is coastal fresh water sources will become brackish and unusable as salt water invades aquifers. Many millions will have their fresh water sources fouled. Pressure on upstream freshwater sources will increase and water wars will increase. Cities will become even more population dense with all the problems that go with overloading social and civil systems. Vast tracts of forest and farmland will be converted to slums and shanty towns. Perhaps a billion people will become refugees.

As people abandon their coastal towns the filth will get left behind causing vast pollution of the oceans along the coasts (even worse than what we have now). Huge dieoffs of fish and other coastal flora and fauna can be expected.

Some areas of the planet will experience additional rainfall and Sonoma County is very likely to experience that. I think we'll be the lucky ones until we too get overcrowded by refugees.

I don't expect to see a lot of good from rising sea levels. I hope I'm wrong.

-Jeff

[mykil]

Hey Jeff I am pretty well informed. please don't think Anything I wrote was too serious. You are extremely book smart but...

[mykil]

I am sorry Jeff and Clancy, that was uncalled for and I am sorry about the way you both feel in this time. I think Clancy makes a good point we need to stop putting carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases
. This is not going to happen over night. The ICE IS GOING TOP MELT, we actually need to prepare for this and stop the gas! Both not one, but both. THE ICE IS GOING TO MELT!! Get used to the idea, and continue your quest to stop the pollutant also would be our best…

[Clancy]

I am sorry Jeff and Clancy, that was uncalled for and I am sorry about the way you both feel in this time.

Thanks, but no need to apologize, you didn't do anything wrong. We're all just talking, sometimes disagreeing, learning, passing the time. No matter what happens, it's all a grand spectacle, on that I think we can agree.