Our glaciers, long considered a benchmark for the effects of global warming, are melting and receding at an alarming rate, with scientists predicting as a result, increasing worldwide sea levels and flooding of low-lying coastal communities, rendering the areas inhabitable.
The scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey have monitored three glaciers located in Alaska and Washington State, for 50 years and issued a new report on their findings, showing an accelerated wasting away of the glaciers during the past 15 years, which is caused by the global warming of our planet.
Lead researcher Edward Josberger, with the USGS Washington Water Science Center in Tacoma, Washington, likened the accelerated glacier melting as the canary in the coal mine, warning the world of the deadly changes to come. The scientists began monitoring the three glaciers in 1959 and they have never recorded during that time, such a decrease in the mass balance of the glaciers.
The meltdown and retreat of the glaciers also coincides with the highest melt years on record, as the melting water from the glaciers floods delicate ecosystems and rivers.
The scientists have been collecting annual data from three glaciers that represent three climatic regions in the United States; the South Cascade Glacier in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, the Wolverine Glacier on the Kenai Peninsula near Anchorage, Alaska and the Gulkana Glacier in the interior of Alaska.
The long-running geological survey measures climate, glacier geometry, glacier mass balance, glacier motion and stream runoff, to determine with scientific accuracy, the effects of climate change. The scientists have half a century of data, showing the amount of snow covering the glaciers each year, compared to the amount of melting every summer. This comparison shows a significant loss of mass in all three monitored glaciers.
For example, Washingtons South Cascade glacier has lost half its volume since 1960 and is predicted to lose an additional half in the next 100 years. Photographic evidence over the fifty-year study period illustrates the disturbing effects of global warming, more powerfully than the scientific data alone, as the glaciers melt away and retreat further up into the mountain valleys each year.
Global Warming Causing Alarming Glacier Meltdown | ChattahBox News Blog
The scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey have monitored three glaciers located in Alaska and Washington State, for 50 years and issued a new report on their findings, showing an accelerated wasting away of the glaciers during the past 15 years, which is caused by the global warming of our planet.
Lead researcher Edward Josberger, with the USGS Washington Water Science Center in Tacoma, Washington, likened the accelerated glacier melting as the canary in the coal mine, warning the world of the deadly changes to come. The scientists began monitoring the three glaciers in 1959 and they have never recorded during that time, such a decrease in the mass balance of the glaciers.
The meltdown and retreat of the glaciers also coincides with the highest melt years on record, as the melting water from the glaciers floods delicate ecosystems and rivers.
The scientists have been collecting annual data from three glaciers that represent three climatic regions in the United States; the South Cascade Glacier in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, the Wolverine Glacier on the Kenai Peninsula near Anchorage, Alaska and the Gulkana Glacier in the interior of Alaska.
The long-running geological survey measures climate, glacier geometry, glacier mass balance, glacier motion and stream runoff, to determine with scientific accuracy, the effects of climate change. The scientists have half a century of data, showing the amount of snow covering the glaciers each year, compared to the amount of melting every summer. This comparison shows a significant loss of mass in all three monitored glaciers.
For example, Washingtons South Cascade glacier has lost half its volume since 1960 and is predicted to lose an additional half in the next 100 years. Photographic evidence over the fifty-year study period illustrates the disturbing effects of global warming, more powerfully than the scientific data alone, as the glaciers melt away and retreat further up into the mountain valleys each year.
Global Warming Causing Alarming Glacier Meltdown | ChattahBox News Blog
