Ocean heat blamed for the mysterious disappearance of glaciers

A mysterious phenomenon is causing four major glaciers in the Antarctic to shrink in unison, causing a significant increase in sea levels, scientists have found.

The rise in atmospheric temperatures caused by global warming cannot account for the relatively rapid movement of the glaciers into the sea, but scientists suspect that warmer oceans may be playing a role.

"There is a possibility that heat from the ocean is somehow flowing in underneath these glaciers, but it is not related to global warming," said glaciologist Duncan Wingham of University College London. "Something has changed that is causing these glaciers to shrink.

"At this rate the glaciers will all be afloat in 150 years or so."
.....................
However, it would take about 200 years for extra heat from the ocean to reach the underside of the glaciers, which makes it difficult to believe that the present shrinkage is due to global warming, Dr Wingham said.

news.independent.co.uk...

In that article Prof. Wingham is saying that "anthropogenic CO2", which is blamed by some scientists to have cause Global Warming, is not the cause for the melting of these glaciers.

At least one of the reasons for this melting is the following.

The Arctic shelf is currently undergoing dramatic thermal changes caused by the continued warming associated with Holocene sea level rise. During this transgression, comparatively warm waters have flooded over cold permafrost areas of the Arctic Shelf. A thermal pulse of more than 10°C is still propagating down into the submerged sediment and may be decomposing gas hydrate as well as permafrost.

www.agu.org...

The warming has been lineked to be caused by the Holocene warming, or the overall warming the Earth has been undergoing since the last Ice Age.

Those two links prove that both the Arctic and Antarctic oceans are undergoing warming caused since the last Ice Age, during the Holocene period.


[edit on 21-3-2007 by Muaddib]

This is the nail in the coffin that i was looking for
www.xeeatwelve.com...

this article collaborates with your article.It is out of this world but never the less thought provoking.
also do read my thread
www.abovetopsecret.com...'
Both articles contradict about the cause of global warming.Choose the right article.I believe GW is being casued by ET's
I also believe that our sun is heating up which is literally adding fuel to the fire.

[edit on 8-4-2007 by areyoumad]

And this is where uncertainties arise. In Greenland, it is possible that water from melting ice at the surface of the glaciers is boring holes through the ice sheets and lubricating their base. "It is at least possible," says Wingham, that global warming is causing this to happen now more than before.

....
Wingham and Shepherd's review of recent research on Antarctica did find that four Antarctic glaciers that are retreating in unison share a common feature: they are all in direct contact with the sea.

"Our assessment confirms that just one type of glacier in Antarctica is retreating today – those that are seated in deep submarine basins and flow directly into the oceans," says Shepherd. "These glaciers are vulnerable to small changes in ocean temperature, such as those that have occurred over the 20th century and those predicted for the 21st century. A rise of less than 0.5 °C could have triggered the present imbalance."

www.newscientisttech.com...

Maybe we should let Wingham have the last word:

"In Greenland, we know there is melting associated with the ice loss, but in Antarctica we don't really know why it's happening," said Duncan Wingham, an author of the Science magazine review released today."


And I'll crosspost this here, for whilst I can't take muaddib serious anymore, it is still important to show his disinformation for what it is.


en.wikipedia.org...:Holocene_Temperature_Variations.png

It is pretty much accepted, even by contrarians, that it was generally cooling through the holocene. Of course, there will be 'noise' within that trend, but overall, it has been a period of cooling since a high about 7500 years ago.

Lets look at the whole abstract from the Paull's article:

The Arctic shelf is currently undergoing dramatic thermal changes caused by the continued warming associated with Holocene sea level rise. During this transgression, comparatively warm waters have flooded over cold permafrost areas of the Arctic Shelf. A thermal pulse of more than 10°C is still propagating down into the submerged sediment and may be decomposing gas hydrate as well as permafrost. A search for gas venting on the Arctic seafloor focused on pingo-like-features (PLFs) on the Beaufort Sea Shelf because they may be a direct consequence of gas hydrate decomposition at depth. Vibracores collected from eight PLFs had systematically elevated methane concentrations. ROV observations revealed streams of methane-rich gas bubbles coming from the crests of PLFs. We offer a scenario of how PLFs may be growing offshore as a result of gas pressure associated with gas hydrate decomposition.

More details below:
www.mbari.org...

Thermal pulse propogating through deep sea sediments over thousands of years. These sediments are hundreds of meters deep and are/were permafrost. This warming was the cause of pingo-like structures. The ocean is cold, but the permafrost colder.

If this thermal wave from sea level rises at the end of the last ice-age, was causing a change in global climate, we would see this in the data. A gradual warming over the holocene.

we don't.


[edit on 8-4-2007 by melatonin]