Past the point of no return

West Antarctic Glaciers and Ice Sheet in an 'irreversible state of decline'

NASA-JPL West Antarctic Glacier Loss Appears Unstoppable Videos top right Article - "This sector will be a major contributor to sea level rise in the decades and centuries to come," Rignot said. "A conservative estimate is it could take several centuries for all of the ice to flow into the sea." http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-148

Runaway Glaciers in West Antarctica http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/?id=1301 West Antarctica Glaciers: Past the Point of No Return http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.php?id=1302

A new study by researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline, with nothing to stop the glaciers in this area from melting into the sea. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GL060140/abstract;jsessionid=DFE55610AC63021D4925D30BC0C388CC.f04t04 ($pay)

The study presents multiple lines of evidence, incorporating 40 years of observations that indicate the glaciers in the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica "have passed the point of no return," according to glaciologist and lead author Eric Rignot, of UC Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The new study has been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

These glaciers already contribute significantly to sea level rise, releasing almost as much ice into the ocean annually as the entire Greenland Ice Sheet. They contain enough ice to raise global sea level by 4 feet (1.2 meters) and are melting faster than most scientists had expected. Rignot said these findings will require an upward revision to current predictions of sea level rise. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140512134613.htm

Widespread, rapid grounding line retreat of Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith and Kohler glaciers, West Antarctica from 1992 to 2011.† E. Rignot et al. Keywords: Antarctica; Mass balance; interferometry; Glacier dynamics; Marine instability

But "what we have shown is this glacier is really in the early stages of collapse," says Joughin, lead author of a study published separately in the journal Science on Monday. "If the whole glacier system melts, Joughin says, it would raise global sea levels about 24 inches (60 centimeters), he adds. The process will take a while, roughly 200 to 900 years, Joughin and colleagues estimate, depending on how fast temperatures rise and how much snow falls in the area."

Abstract -- We measure the grounding line retreat of glaciers draining the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica using Earth Remote Sensing (ERS-1/2) satellite radar interferometry from 1992 to 2011. Pine Island Glacier retreated 31 km at its center, with most retreat in 2005–2009 when the glacier un-grounded from its ice plain. Thwaites Glacier retreated 14 km along its fast-flow core and 1 to 9 km along the sides. Haynes Glacier retreated 10 km along its flanks. Smith/Kohler glaciers retreated the most, 35 km along its ice plain, and its ice shelf pinning points are vanishing. These rapid retreats proceed along regions of retrograde bed elevation mapped at a high spatial resolution using a mass conservation technique (MC) that removes residual ambiguities from prior mappings. Upstream of the 2011 grounding line positions, we find no major bed obstacle that would prevent the glaciers from further retreat and draw down the entire basin.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GL060140/abstract;jsessionid=DFE55610AC63021D4925D30BC0C388CC.f04t04 ($pay)

Marine Ice Sheet Collapse Potentially Underway for the Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica Abstract:- Resting atop a deep marine basin, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has long been considered prone to instability. Using a numerical model, we investigate the sensitivity of Thwaites Glacier to ocean melt and whether unstable retreat is already underway. Our model reproduces observed losses when forced with ocean melt comparable to estimates. Simulated losses are moderate (<0.25 mm per year sea level) over the 21st Century, but generally increase thereafter. Except possibly for the lowest-melt scenario, the simulations indicate early-stage collapse has begun. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/05/12/science.1249055 ($pay)

Pine Island Glacier calving satelite visual - FigS7_Pig_anim.gif (8Mb) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/2014GL060140/asset/supinfo/FigS7_Pig_anim.gif?v=1&s=5868da8bd5bc322c054116b0229995f64c54a1e2

Maps Graphics article Ian Joughin, who studies the physics of glaciers at the University of Washington, Seattle, says that the Thwaites glacier on Antarctica's Amundsen Sea was thought to be "stabilized for a few thousand years." But "what we have shown is this glacier is really in the early stages of collapse," says Joughin, lead author of a study published separately in the journal Science on Monday. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140512-thwaites-glacier-melting-collapse-west-antarctica-ice-warming/

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Last Updated 2014-05-13http://www.scribd.com/doc/223695121/May-2014-Antarctic-Ice-Sheet-Past-the-Point-of-No-Return