California-sized melt in Antarctica discovered
(May 25) Earlier this month, NASA scientists said they have found clear evidence of a California–sized area of snow melting in west Antarctica in January 2005, in response to warm summer temperatures.
An area of more than 411,000 square kilometers in West Antarctica melted and then re–froze in only seven days. Data from NASA’s QuikScat satellite revealed melting in places that scientists thought such melting would be unlikely; far inland, at high latitudes and at high elevations.
The scientists say that the melt happened in the southern summer of 2005 when temperatures were unusually high, peaking at more than five degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit.) But the melt was not prolonged enough for the melt water to flow into the sea.
This massive melting of ice in Antarctica – until now relatively unaffected by climate change – has worried climate change experts who believed west Antarctica was virtually immune to rising temperatures.
Antarctica holds 90 percent of the world’s ice and is Earth’s largest fresh water reservoir. Large amounts of melted Antarctic freshwater flowing into the ocean also could affect sea level, ocean salinity, currents and global climate
Sources:
Vast Antarctic ice melt, The Daily Telegraph
Antarctic melting,NASA confirms, area big as California, Carib Journal
I’d love to know how many gallons of water that melt represents. As much as a small town used in a year? As much as Tokyo uses in a year? Or as much as one person uses in a year? Does anyone know?
You can sort of imagine a liquid lake the size of California … but I wonder … how deep?
You’d need to know how deep the lake was before you could calculate how much water was actually in there.
It looks as if these scientists measured the area of melting from above – from a satellite – so they probably aren’t sure how deep.
Deborah
i will say it until it is:
we need to establish a series of desalination plants all along the coastal regions of the EARTH, and pump the water inland. this will drain the ocean, we can take the filtered salt and reintroduce this to the less salinated areas of the ocean, the areas next to the glaciers.
we can balance the planet again. we can live in a veritable eden. we can use the rising ocean and live with plenty of water in our lakes, streams, aquifers, water tanks, and this would be one of the defining points in our era.
or not. we can just continue until we’re at a point of fighting over water while the ocean overflows….water, water, everywhere….