• More difficult than expected for glacier

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Monday, May 09, 2022 22:30:42
    More difficult than expected for glaciers to recover from climate
    warming

    Date:
    May 9, 2022
    Source:
    Stockholm University
    Summary:
    Ice shelves are floating extensions of glaciers. If Greenland's
    second largest ice shelf breaks up, it may not recover unless
    Earth's future climate cools considerably.



    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    Ice shelves are floating extensions of glaciers. If Greenland's second
    largest ice shelf breaks up, it may not recover unless Earth's future
    climate cools considerably. This is the result of a new study, published
    in Nature Communications.


    ==========================================================================
    A team of scientists from Stockholm University and University of
    California Irvine investigated whether the Petermann Ice Shelf in northern Greenland could recover from a future breakup due to climate change. They
    used a sophisticated computer model to simulate the potential recovery
    of the ice shelf.

    "Even if Earth's climate stopped warming, it would be difficult to
    rebuild this ice shelf once it has fallen apart," says Henning AAkesson,
    who led the study at Stockholm University.

    "If Petermann's ice shelf is lost, we would have to go 'back in time'
    towards a cooler climate reminiscent of the period before the industrial revolution to regrow Petermann," AAkesson says.

    Ice shelves reduce mass loss from our polar ice sheets. These gatekeepers thereby limit sea-level rise caused by climate warming. "The rationale
    to avoid breakup of ice shelves in the first place should be clearer
    than ever," AAkesson says.

    Glaciers are rapidly melting Petermann is one of Greenland's few remaining
    ice shelves, and is being watched by Argus-eyed scientists worldwide after Manhattan-sized icebergs broke off from the ice shelf in 2010 and 2012,
    causing Petermann to lose 40 percent of its floating ice shelf. Scientist
    are concerned that further breakup or even collapse of the ice shelf
    would speed up ice flow from the interior ice sheet.

    In 2018, a new crack in the middle of the ice shelf was discovered,
    which renewed worries of Petermann's state of health.

    Ice-sheet experts are concerned While this study focused on northwestern Greenland's largest glacier, another grave concern is that the larger
    ice shelves found in Antarctica could be difficult to build back as well, should they break-up too.

    "This is just the first step, but chances are that our findings are not
    unique for Petermann Glacier and Greenland." AAkesson says. "If they are
    not, near- future warming of the polar oceans may push the ice shelves protecting Earth's ice sheets into a new retreated high-discharge state
    which may be exceedingly difficult to recover from." The ice-sheet
    experts stress that we need to pin down exactly how ice shelves break-up,
    and how much more warming they now can withstand before they fall apart.


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Stockholm_University. Note: Content
    may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Henning Åkesson, Mathieu Morlighem, Johan Nilsson, Christian
    Stranne, Martin Jakobsson. Petermann ice shelf may not recover
    after a future breakup. Nature Communications, 2022; 13 (1) DOI:
    10.1038/s41467- 022-29529-5 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220509162822.htm

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