Study Finds Most East Antarctica Glaciers Are Growing

By Paul Homewood

 

h/t Hockey Schtick

 

Research by scientists at Durham University has found that the majority of glaciers in East Antarctica have been advancing since 1990.

 

Rapid, climate-driven changes in outlet glaciers on the Pacific coast of East Antarctica

 

BWJ Miles, CR Stokes, A Vieli & NJ Cox

 

ABSTRACT

Observations of ocean-terminating outlet glaciers in Greenland and West Antarctica indicate that their contribution to sea level is accelerating as a result of increased velocity, thinning and retreat. Thinning has also been reported along the margin of the much larger East Antarctic ice sheet, but whether glaciers are advancing or retreating there is largely unknown, and there has been no attempt to place such changes in the context of localized mass loss or climatic or oceanic forcing. Here we present multidecadal trends in the terminus position of 175 ocean-terminating outlet glaciers along 5,400 kilometres of the margin of the East Antarctic ice sheet, and reveal widespread and synchronous changes. Despite large fluctuations between glaciers—linked to their size—three epochal patterns emerged: 63 per cent of glaciers retreated from 1974 to 1990, 72 per cent advanced from 1990 to 2000, and 58 per cent advanced from 2000 to 2010. These trends were most pronounced along the warmer western South Pacific coast, whereas glaciers along the cooler Ross Sea coast experienced no significant changes. We find that glacier change along the Pacific coast is consistent with a rapid and coherent response to air temperature and sea-ice trends, linked through the dominant mode of atmospheric variability (the Southern Annular Mode). We conclude that parts of the world’s largest ice sheet may be more vulnerable to external forcing than recognized previously.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v500/n7464/full/nature12382.html

   

In a report by Science Daily, author Dr Chris Stokes says:-

“When it was warm and the sea-ice decreased, most glaciers retreated, but when it was cooler and the sea ice increased, the glaciers advanced.

When temperatures warm in the air or ocean, glaciers respond by retreating and this can have knock-on effects further inland, where more and more ice is drawn-down towards the coast.”

  

We already know that sea ice is at record levels, and now we have a link between that, glacier growth and colder temperatures.

None of this will stop certain people blaming it all on global warming.