Earth Anomalies

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Greenland is on track to lose ice faster than in any century over 12,000 years: study

If human societies don't sharply curb emissions of greenhouse gases, Greenland's rate of ice loss this century is likely to greatly outpace that of any century over the past 12,000 years, a new study concludes.

 

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Melting Antarctic Ice Exposes 800-Year-Old Penguins That Still Look Fresh

A biologist working off the Ross Sea in Antarctica has stumbled upon an assortment of Adélie penguin remains, some of which appeared to have died only recently. Turns out these dead penguins are actually quite ancient, having been newly exposed by the effects of global warming.

 

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Chilling Report Suggests 1 Out of 5 Countries Could Be Headed For Ecosystem Collapse
https://www.sciencealert.com/chilli...ohTetwtrnE_LdttW8z-MDGEgNLpOj8wIifK3s7KIO4AaI

 

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Ancient tectonic plate discovered beneath Canada, geologists claim

It’s long been known that in the early Cenozoic Era – around 60 million years ago – there were two major tectonic plates, called Kula and Farallon, in the Pacific Ocean off the western coast of North America. But debate has raged about whether they were joined by a third, oddly named Resurrection, which would have since sunk beneath the surface. And now, the geologists on the new study say they’ve found this missing plate.

 

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Ice loss likely to continue in Antarctica

A new international study led by Monash University climate scientists has revealed that ice loss in Antarctica persisted for many centuries after it was initiated and is expected to continue.

"Our study implies that ice loss unfolding in Antarctica today is likely to continue unbated for a long time—even if climate change is brought under control," said lead study authors Dr. Richard Jones and Dr. Ross Whitmore, from the Monash University School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment.

 

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Giant iceberg may be on collision course with island of South Georgia

Satellite images indicate that an iceberg 158 km (98 mi) long and 48 km (30 mi) wide is floating towards the island of South Georgia in the southern Atlantic, where it could cause damage to the local wildlife, including penguins and seals, if it runs aground.

In 2017, a gigantic sheet of ice covering 6,000 km² (2,300 mi²) broke free from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica and drifted out to sea. Originally designated A-68, it later calved off three smaller bergs, after which it was renamed A-68a. This event sparked considerable scientific interest, especially after freeing up a seabed that's been encased in ice for 120,000 years. And now it looks as if the iceberg could have unpleasant consequences as the winds and tides send it toward South Georgia.

 

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Glaciers in China's bleak, rugged Qilian mountains are disappearing at a shocking rate

Glaciers in China's bleak, rugged Qilian mountains are disappearing at a shocking rate as global warming brings unpredictable change and raises the prospect of crippling, long-term water shortages, scientists say.

The largest glacier in the 800-km (500-mile) mountain chain on the arid northeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau has retreated about 450 metres since the 1950s, when researchers set up China's first monitoring station to study it.

 

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Clues to Puebloan History Drip Away in Melting Ice Caves

Researchers have discovered charcoal dating back almost 2,000 years in New Mexican ice caves—providing physical evidence that ancestral Puebloans used the ice deposits for drinking water during droughts.

Scientists are working fast to sample cores from the deposits, which likely formed thousands of years ago. Rising global temperatures have made it warm enough that the ice is beginning to disappear from the sites at El Malpais National Monument.

 

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Deep Frozen Arctic Microbes Are Waking Up

In the last 10 years, warming in the Arctic has outpaced projections so rapidly that scientists are now suggesting that the poles are warming four times faster than the rest of the globe. This has led to glacier melt and permafrost thaw levels that weren’t forecast to happen until 2050 or later. In Siberia and northern Canada, this abrupt thaw has created sunken landforms, known as thermokarst, where the oldest and deepest permafrost is exposed to the warm air for the first time in hundreds or even thousands of years.

 

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The daring plan to save the Arctic ice with glass

As planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, some have been driven to explore desperate measures. One proposal put forward by the California-based non-profit Arctic Ice Project appears as daring as it is bizarre: to scatter a thin layer of reflective glass powder over parts of the Arctic, in an effort to protect it from the Sun’s rays and help ice grow back. “We’re trying to break [that] feedback loop and start rebuilding,” says engineer Leslie Field, an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University and chief technical officer of the organisation.

 

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2020 tied for warmest year on record, NASA analysis shows

Earth's global average surface temperature in 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record, according to an analysis by NASA.

Continuing the planet's long-term warming trend, the year's globally averaged temperature was 1.84 degrees Fahrenheit (1.02 degrees Celsius) warmer than the baseline 1951-1980 mean, according to scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. 2020 edged out 2016 by a very small amount, within the margin of error of the analysis, making the years effectively tied for the warmest year on record.