US EditionStudy: Antarctic Glacier Retreats 15 Miles in Record Speed
- A CU Boulder-led study found Hektoria Glacier retreated by 8 kilometres and disintegrated nearly 50% between November and December 2022.
- The glacier's ice plain configuration meant Hektoria rested on flat bedrock, enabling it to go afloat and trigger rapid calving.
- Using satellite and seismic data, researchers found seismic instruments recorded glacier earthquakes coinciding with rapid retreat and satellite data revealed multiple grounding lines beneath Hektoria.
- Scientists warned the same conditions could greatly speed up sea level rise, and Ted Scambos, senior research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, said `This is astonishing; the rate of retreat is just crazy`.
- COLDEX researchers collected the oldest directly dated ice cores, six million years old, from Allan Hills, East Antarctica, using argon isotope dating and plan more drilling there.
84 Articles
84 Articles
Satellite images reveal the fastest Antarctic glacier retreat ever
Hektoria Glacier’s sudden eight-kilometer collapse stunned scientists, marking the fastest modern ice retreat ever recorded in Antarctica. Its flat, below-sea-level ice plain allowed huge slabs of ice to detach rapidly once retreat began. Seismic activity confirmed this wasn’t just floating ice but grounded mass contributing to sea level rise. The event raises alarms that other fragile glaciers may be poised for similar, faster-than-expected col…
A glacier the size of Philadelphia just did something scientists have never seen. They're alarmed.
Signs of climate change are all around us, from rising sea levels, to more frequent wildfires, to something as subtle as the warm breeze that seems to last longer and longer into winter every year.But scientists have been keeping an especially close eye on Earth's glaciers, giant mountains of ice that have been observed steadily melting since the 1970s. Tracking the size and movement of glaciers gives us a good idea as to how rising temperatures…
There are no precedents since the Ice Age. Almost half of the Hektoria glacier, in eastern Antarctica, collapsed in just two months, losing 8.2 kilometers of ice, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience. Scientists warn of the impact of global warming on the stability of polar glaciers. This rapid retreat, one of the most drastic recorded in recent years, alerts to the acceleration of melting in the region and its possible consequenc…
Considerable shrinking of Antarctic glacier reported
Experts have expressed their concern after a study revealed that the Hektoria Glacier in eastern Antarctica retreated by 50% in just two months —between November and December 2022— losing 8.2 kilometers of ice. This rate of ice loss is nearly ten times faster than previously measured for land-based glaciers, setting a new record.
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