All Questions
Tagged with glaciology climate-change
36 questions
21
votes
6
answers
6k
views
How does global-warming-triggered ice melting cause global sea levels to rise?
Apologies for asking a silly question like this. But I want to offer some points which I could not counter, as follows:
Ice is less dense than water, that is why it floats. For the same unit mass, if ...
- 417
19
votes
3
answers
1k
views
How do we know that we are NOT in an "Ice Age?"
Historically, the earth has had five "Ice Ages" Each of them lasted millions, tens of millions, or hundreds of millions of years.
The last ice age reportedly ended perhaps 10,000 years ago. That ...
- 2,244
14
votes
3
answers
6k
views
How will sea level rise be distributed across the globe?
Sea level rise from melting glaciers will not be uniformly distributed across the globe. However, it isn't clear to me what places will have the most and least extreme changes in sea level rise. I ...
- 14k
14
votes
1
answer
328
views
Where does the biggest land-based ice cap reside?
I'm thinking biggest in volume, regarding which area of the planet will contribute more to a raising in sea level - were the ice in those regions to melt.
I can basically think of two candidates, ...
- 243
13
votes
5
answers
2k
views
When will the Final Ice Age happen?
As the Sun's luminosity slowly rises, the Earth's surface temperature will climb. Will Earth ever be too warm to have any more glacial periods? If so, when will that be?
Edit: The existing answer ...
- 232
13
votes
2
answers
2k
views
When will glaciation resume? Has global warming delayed return to global cooling?
As far as I understand, we are currently living in the Holocene, an interglacial period of the Quaternary glaciation, i.e. the current ice age that has so far lasted 2.6 million years. The Holocene ...
- 230
12
votes
1
answer
2k
views
For what percentage of the earth's history has there been permanent ice?
Wikipedia comments here that "Permanent ice is actually a rare phenomenon in the history of the Earth, occurring only during the 20% of the time that the planet is under an icehouse effect." A "...
11
votes
3
answers
5k
views
How long to melt all the polar ice?
The answers to this question say that the sea level will rise 66m if all the polar ice, etc, melts.
How long will this take?
Transporting incredible amounts of heat energy to the poles and injecting ...
- 239
11
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Will increased precipitation in Antarctica prevent sea level rise?
It has been suggested that global warming will lead to increased precipitation in parts of Antarctica. This would sequester water in the ice sheet, preventing sea level rise.
However, the slope (and ...
- 2,359
8
votes
1
answer
4k
views
What would it be like to live in an ice age?
If you were born in the most recent ice age, how different would your life be compared to how you live it today? Furthermore, if humans currently lived in an ice age, how would it affect life today?
- 485
6
votes
3
answers
1k
views
If there's more water in the atmosphere due to global warming, how are there fewer mountain glaciers?
As I understand it, moisture condenses at mountain tops to form the mountain glaciers that provide water. The mountain topography doesn't change much in the span of a few decades, so if there's more ...
- 211
6
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Can ice caps reform if they disappear?
Excuse my ignorance. I'm under the impression that there are various types of ice at the poles, but I don't know the difference or the significance of each type, so, in terms of whatever is actually ...
- 163
6
votes
2
answers
331
views
What caused the Carbon Dioxide Variations observed in the 800,000-year polar ice record?
I have seen several graphs showing the prehistoric temperatures and CO2 concentrations derived from ice-core data. My understanding is that CO2 and temperature correlate. I assume that Milankovich ...
- 1,055
6
votes
1
answer
389
views
How significant is human influence on seismic activity?
Here's a graph from johnstonsarchive.net showing energy released by earthquakes and, however reliable this graph is, it shows huge differences in earthquake activity. About how big percent is the ...
- 297
6
votes
0
answers
480
views
How much of Earth's surface would be covered by water if all ice melted? [duplicate]
I'm trying to find how much water would be on the surface of Earth and how much surface would it cover (how much land will remain) if all the ice at the North and South Poles (and everywhere else) ...
- 69
5
votes
2
answers
8k
views
How would Earth map look like if all ice melts?
Is there somewhere a map which indicates which areas and cities become sea?
- 151
5
votes
0
answers
102
views
Simulating snow melt inundation in urban areas
I am trying to understand how melt water from snow in urban setting gets routed.
I understand that for routing rain water, one can create grid and then determine the flow direction for each cell by ...
- 121
5
votes
0
answers
97
views
Dynamic of glacier retreat? (here: in Greenland)
During the last years I have taken many pictures of obviously retreating glaciers and empty moraines in Greenland - just like this one. Looks devastating, actually.
In my understanding, the current ...
4
votes
1
answer
118
views
Why did "Glaciologist Princess Elsa" have to leave the glacier because it was too warm?
This tweet shows "Glaciologist Princess Elsa" is actually Caltech geophysics PhD student and cryoseismologist Celeste Labedz.
The BBC News article What's a 'Science Princess' doing in an ice field in ...
- 6,904
4
votes
1
answer
127
views
Weather conditions to create significant glacier growth
I am fascinated at the rapid growth of Glacier Bay Glacier from 1600 to 1750, along with its rapid retreat from 1750 to 1900. I am interested in the local weather conditions during these times. What ...
- 41
4
votes
1
answer
114
views
Waterlevel increase calculation
So I tried to calculate the rise of waterlevel myself. But the results I have gotten seem to be pretty low:
Given the earths radius, I clalculated different Events:
1) If all landice melts there is ...
- 43
4
votes
1
answer
147
views
Status of overdue glaciation hypothesis
What is the status of the Early Anthropocene hypothesis, in the specific meaning that the climate would be projected to be significantly cooler (such as, on the order of by 0.8 degrees in the planet ...
- 191
3
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Regarding the melting glaciers and icebergs, why isn't the extra water vapor in the atmosphere mentioned in discussions of global warming?
As is reported on the major news networks, many glaciers and big icebergs are melting, which reportedly causes a tremendous increase in the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.
Now a lot of ...
- 397
3
votes
1
answer
79
views
Why would glaciers change its size? How to differenciate change in glacier size as a response to climate and its natural dynamics?
Glaciers flow as they deform under its own weight. But they also advance or retreat accordingly to the various climate factors.
How would I differentiate a glacier that is in motion flowing down the ...
- 551
3
votes
1
answer
80
views
Difference between downwasting and dynamic glacier response to climate change
The acceleration
of glacier shrinkage after 1985 indicates a transition toward rapid down- wasting rather than a
dynamic glacier response to a changed climate
I am unable to distinguish between ...
- 551
3
votes
2
answers
950
views
Estimated volume, daily or annually, of sea level rise due to melting ice?
Its a big number, difficult to estimate I assume. But is there a peer reviewed estimation (at current conditions) of the volume of daily or annual increase of water?
3
votes
2
answers
282
views
Current temperature increase VS decrease during the little ice age
Looking at the following temperature reconstructions i have two questions (source: wikipedia):
Why is the y-axis centered around -0.2 °C?
Why are the consequences of the current temperature ...
- 133
3
votes
0
answers
70
views
Quantifying long term melt record on glacier surface
I intend to create a long term melt record on a glacier surface. What are parameters required to efficiently calculate the same using satellite, weather station observations & reanalysis datasets (...
- 41
2
votes
1
answer
416
views
Are we at the beginning of a Heinrich Event?
Does our current weather trend properly reflect a Heinrich Event? It seems like the drastic weather swings are what I would expect but I realize that is not definitive. I don't see the term bandied ...
- 29
2
votes
0
answers
43
views
Is this cold water surrounding Greenland meltwater?
The image below, cut from the Climate Reanalyzer based on data from September 26, 2024, shows deviations of the sea surface temperatures from the long-term mean. The color code is intuitive, with ...
2
votes
0
answers
78
views
How is sea level rise due to a glacier melting calculated?
There's news going around (e.g. link) that the melting of the Thwaites glacier may cause sea levels to rise by 10 feet. Is that true and not exaggerated? How is the calculation made? They said the ...
- 255
1
vote
2
answers
910
views
Polar Ice caps are melting? Questions on enviromental impact
The polar ice caps are melting at a significant rate partly due to the albedo effect, releasing greenhouse gas-methane into earth’s atmosphere. At the same time we are logging our forests for ...
- 499
1
vote
1
answer
115
views
How do melting glaciers dry rivers?
How do melting glaciers dry rivers? Unless there's less precipitation during winter, I don't see how it affects the volume of water of the rivers that glaciers feed into. If it's cold, water ...
- 987
1
vote
0
answers
17
views
What determines and confirms sensitivity of glaciers to climate change/ climate forcing?
Consider two groups of glaciers, say Group A and Group B. For simplicity, let's consider the group to fall in one size class (say 1-5 sq km), both located in the same kind of climate. We DO NOT know ...
- 551
1
vote
0
answers
158
views
How would I simulate the effects of the Antarctic ice sheet being deleted on Earth's climate?
This is a follow-up to my question If its ice sheet were removed under modern atmospheric conditions, what climatic and ice-sheet equilibrium would be re-established over Antarctica?. As it has ...
- 355