Alaskan Glaciers Melting Faster… 5 Times Faster Than in 1980

by times news cr

2024-07-08 05:32:24

International scientific journal Nature Communications Research
“It is highly likely that the glacier will not form again”
21% of sea level rise is due to melting glaciers

ⓒNewsis

A study found that Alaskan glaciers are melting 4.6 times faster than they were in the 1980s.

On the 2nd (local time), a paper was published in the international scientific journal Nature Communications containing an analysis that the loss of ice from the Juneau Ice Field in Alaska has accelerated since 2005.

A joint research team from Newcastle University in the UK and the University of Massachusetts measured the rate of decrease in the area of ​​the Alaskan ice sheet, which covers 3,885㎢, by year. According to the research team, the rate of decrease in the area of ​​the ice sheet between 2015 and 2019 was five times faster than between 1979 and 1990.

The analysis is that this rate has been accelerating since 2005, as the entire ice sheet has become thinner. Compared to the nearly 200 years between 1770 and 1979, when the rate of ice sheet area reduction was relatively constant, it can be seen that the ice sheet is melting rapidly.

The volume of newly formed ice caps is also decreasing. The average annual volume of ice caps formed between 2010 and 2020 has decreased twice as fast as the average annual volume of ice caps recorded between 1979 and 2010.

“As the glaciers in the Juneau Icefield continue to retreat in warmer air, it is highly likely that they will never form again,” said Bethan Davis, professor of geography at Newcastle University and lead author of the study.

The Juneau Icefield is the fifth largest icefield in North America. It covers an area of ​​about 1,500 square miles (about 3,885㎢), which is about six times the size of Seoul.

The current Juneau Icefield area is about a quarter of what it was in 1770, and the approximately 108 glaciers that existed at that time have completely disappeared, including the giant Antler.

Since 1980, Alaska temperatures have risen by an average of 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to federal weather data, making the state warmer about four times faster than the rest of the planet, the study said.

The problem is that the melting and loss of glaciers causes sea level rise. Studies show that glaciers accounted for 21% of the observed global sea level rise between 1993 and 2017, with glaciers in Alaska and western Canada having the greatest impact.

The study found that by 2100, about 30 percent of Alaska’s glaciers will disappear, causing global sea levels to rise by 17±4 mm.

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2024-07-08 05:32:24

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