Earth's Ice Melting Fast: The Adverse Impact of Climate Change
Earth's Ice Melting Fast: The Adverse Impact of Climate Change
Antarctica is one of the most icy parts of our planet. But recent reports indicate that this may be about to change. Scientists have found that hundreds of miles down, our planet's ice is melting at a really rapid rate.
Earth's mantle under the Antarctica glacier is moving rapidly and the shape of the land is now changing at a rate which can be recorded by the global positioning system (GPS). An international team of researchers under the Newcastle University of UK have explained the reason behind the fast upward motion of the earth's crust within the northern Antarctic peninsula is taking place in such a rapid manner.
The movement of the earth's crust was originally thought to be caused due to an instant, elastic response due to a slow uplift over a period spanning thousands of years. But previous studies have shown that the earth is rebounding, as it were due to the overlying ice sheet shrinking as a result of climate change.
Global postitioning system data aggregated over the years has shown that land in this region is rising at a massively rapid rate of 15 mm per year. This is much greater than can be accounted for due to current elastic response as previously postulated.
Researchers have shown how the mantle below the earth's crust in the Antarctic peninsula is flowing at a rate much faster than previously anticipated. It is probably due to subtle changes in the chemical composition or temprature of the area, according to scientists. The earth is responding to the change by making a massive transformation in its shape.
Lead researcher Grace Nield has indicated that the rebound was expected to happen over 1000s of years and instead it is occuring within a span of 10 years only. As the mantle beneath the northern Antarctic peninsula is runnier, it is responding much faster to what is occurring on the surface. As a result of this, the glaciers are thinning and the load in the localised areas is reducing. Due to this, the mantle is pushing up the crust.
Since the year 1995, several ice shelves in the northern Antarctic peninsula have faced a collapse and this has triggered ice-mass unloading causing the earth to rebound or bounce back. The ice was pressing down on the earth and the weight reduces the crust and causes it to bounce nack. But the ice loss when compared to the uplift created a major difference in tally. Nield has indicated that the phenomenal way in which the solid earth is being pushed up suggests soemthing else is happening. Data was collated from 7 GPS stations to arrive at this research finding.
What is alarming is that the team found the rebound was so rapid that the upper mantle viscosity or resistance to flow was 10 times lower than previously thought for this refgion and considerably lower than the rest of Anatarctica. Scientists who were part of the research team also noticed that glacier thinning is impacting rocks as deep as 250 miles down. Professor Clarke of the research team also said the “threat is looming large at 400 km below the earth” and one can “clearly blame climate change for this”.
Seeing this unprecendented deformation of the glaciers is just one part of the picture. Rising levels of air pollution are also taking their toll on human health in a more direct way. Either way, if the switch to renewable energy sources is not made fast, all we may have left of the earth could well be an empty shell one day.
