https://sputniknews.com/world/201805251064805946-ice-sheet-decline-canyons/
Bad News for Humanity: Hidden Antarctica Canyons to Speed Ice Sheet Decline
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World
14:50 25.05.2018(updated 14:58 25.05.2018) Get short URL
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The largest of the three newly discovered troughs nearly equals the distance between Washington DC and New York City.
While studying the vast snowy lands of Antarctica, a group of researchers from the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have come across three canyons hidden right in the heart of the region.
According to the journal Geophysical Research Letters, where they published their findings, the canyons lie on the borderline between the East and West Antarctic ice sheets, and they essentially direct ice flow to the sea, when the two sheets approximate each other. Given the drastic climatic change predicted for the region, there are fears that the troughs will speed up to a great extent ice streaming towards the sea, thereby causing an abrupt rise in sea level.
© Photo: YouTube/RM Videos
Icy Plunge: Woman Swims in Antarctica
"That makes the canyons really important, and we simply didn’t know they existed before now," Kate Winter, a researcher at Northumbria University in the UK and the lead author of the paper, told the BBC.
The largest one, which goes by the suggestive name Foundation Trough, stretches for roughly 217 miles and is 22 miles wide.
READ MORE: What's in Store For the Planet? Professor's Take on Staggering Carbon Levels
What appears to be most disturbing, temperatures are already reported to be rising, disrupting naturally occurring ice shelves and propelling the Antarctic ice sheets from their rims, sending massive melted ice flows towards the sea.
The research is part of the wider PolarGAP project launched by the European Space Agency to monitor areas of the planet that its satellites can’t catch sight of.
...
71
by Taboola
Promote
https://qz.com/1288699/scientists-d...ld-spell-bad-news-for-the-rest-of-the-planet/
Scientists discovered massive hidden canyons in Antarctica that could spell bad news for the rest of the planet
In the place where West and East Antarctic ice sheets meet is one of the least-explored regions on Earth. These penguins, while in Antarctica, are not in that region. We just thought they were cool looking. (REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini)
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Written by
Zoë Schlanger
May 24, 2018
Antarctica, the Earth’s landmass now most synonymous with bad news, has a new feature for us to worry about.
A team of scientists from the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway just discovered three canyons hidden beneath hundreds of feet of ice in interior Antarctica. In a paper published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, they write that the canyons are in the region where the East and West Antarctic Ice Sheets meet, and the deep subterranean grooves are channelizing ice flow into the sea as the two sheets come together.
“[If] climate conditions change in Antarctica, we might expect the ice in these troughs to flow a lot faster towards the sea. That makes them really important, and we simply didn’t know they existed before now,” Kate Winter, a researcher at Northumbria University in the UK and the lead author on the paper, told the BBC.
The Antarctic ice sheets are expected to keep thinning as the planet warms; it’s already happening to the ice shelves that skirt the rim of the sheets. If that happens, the resulting change in mass could trigger an acceleration of ice flow through these grooves, and could act as a feedback loop driving further ice-sheet disintegration, contributing the sea level rise.
The largest of the three canyons, which the researchers named Foundation Trough, is more than 217 miles (350 kilometers) long and 22 miles wide. That’s roughly the distance between Washington DC and New York City.
As the BBC points out, this paper is the first to come out of PolarGAP, a project of the European Space Agency to take observations of a part of the planet that its satellites cannot “see,” because they don’t orbit over the planet that far south. The PolarGAP project is flying radar-equipped planes over those places to collect data in the satellites’ stead.
American men, it’s time to start talking about your abortions
Bad News for Humanity: Hidden Antarctica Canyons to Speed Ice Sheet Decline
CC0
World
14:50 25.05.2018(updated 14:58 25.05.2018) Get short URL
171
The largest of the three newly discovered troughs nearly equals the distance between Washington DC and New York City.
While studying the vast snowy lands of Antarctica, a group of researchers from the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have come across three canyons hidden right in the heart of the region.
According to the journal Geophysical Research Letters, where they published their findings, the canyons lie on the borderline between the East and West Antarctic ice sheets, and they essentially direct ice flow to the sea, when the two sheets approximate each other. Given the drastic climatic change predicted for the region, there are fears that the troughs will speed up to a great extent ice streaming towards the sea, thereby causing an abrupt rise in sea level.
© Photo: YouTube/RM Videos
Icy Plunge: Woman Swims in Antarctica
"That makes the canyons really important, and we simply didn’t know they existed before now," Kate Winter, a researcher at Northumbria University in the UK and the lead author of the paper, told the BBC.
The largest one, which goes by the suggestive name Foundation Trough, stretches for roughly 217 miles and is 22 miles wide.
READ MORE: What's in Store For the Planet? Professor's Take on Staggering Carbon Levels
What appears to be most disturbing, temperatures are already reported to be rising, disrupting naturally occurring ice shelves and propelling the Antarctic ice sheets from their rims, sending massive melted ice flows towards the sea.
The research is part of the wider PolarGAP project launched by the European Space Agency to monitor areas of the planet that its satellites can’t catch sight of.
...
71
by Taboola
Promote
https://qz.com/1288699/scientists-d...ld-spell-bad-news-for-the-rest-of-the-planet/
Scientists discovered massive hidden canyons in Antarctica that could spell bad news for the rest of the planet
In the place where West and East Antarctic ice sheets meet is one of the least-explored regions on Earth. These penguins, while in Antarctica, are not in that region. We just thought they were cool looking. (REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini)
Share
Written by
Zoë Schlanger
May 24, 2018
Antarctica, the Earth’s landmass now most synonymous with bad news, has a new feature for us to worry about.
A team of scientists from the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway just discovered three canyons hidden beneath hundreds of feet of ice in interior Antarctica. In a paper published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, they write that the canyons are in the region where the East and West Antarctic Ice Sheets meet, and the deep subterranean grooves are channelizing ice flow into the sea as the two sheets come together.
“[If] climate conditions change in Antarctica, we might expect the ice in these troughs to flow a lot faster towards the sea. That makes them really important, and we simply didn’t know they existed before now,” Kate Winter, a researcher at Northumbria University in the UK and the lead author on the paper, told the BBC.
The Antarctic ice sheets are expected to keep thinning as the planet warms; it’s already happening to the ice shelves that skirt the rim of the sheets. If that happens, the resulting change in mass could trigger an acceleration of ice flow through these grooves, and could act as a feedback loop driving further ice-sheet disintegration, contributing the sea level rise.
The largest of the three canyons, which the researchers named Foundation Trough, is more than 217 miles (350 kilometers) long and 22 miles wide. That’s roughly the distance between Washington DC and New York City.
As the BBC points out, this paper is the first to come out of PolarGAP, a project of the European Space Agency to take observations of a part of the planet that its satellites cannot “see,” because they don’t orbit over the planet that far south. The PolarGAP project is flying radar-equipped planes over those places to collect data in the satellites’ stead.
American men, it’s time to start talking about your abortions
