Sunday, March 05, 2006

lunar tides antarctic
Antarctica ice melt(what they did not tell you)

This week in science and reported widely in the msm was the quantification of the ice loss from Antarctica.The Gravity recovery and climate experiment(grace)using a pair of satellites has measured gravity changes to measure the thickness and size of the Antarctic ice sheets.

Writing in the journal Science, they conclude that the continent is losing 152 cubic km of ice each year, with most loss in the west.Although net effects are only slightly negative.

In his contribution to a recent report on climate change, the director of the British Antarctic Survey, Chris Rapley, described the West Antarctic ice sheet as "a giant awakened". reports the BBC.

The amount of ice loss is miniscule the total loss would take 250k at this rate and raise the sealevel by around 150 mm in 500 years.This is not outside the sealevel change from the end of the last glaciation.

Now prior to this part of the projects publication ,(the Grace project also measures the sealevel changes and the effects of the gravity tides (lunar) there was another publication.

The measurability now possible of the gravity tides allowed the effects on the ice shelfs and NATURAL erosion of the WAIS for the first time.

OSU Proffessor Ck Shum comments
While the tides cause only minute fluctuations in Earth’s overall gravity, they are actually composed of massive amounts of water, he explained.
The ice is a mile thick in parts, and the tides are so large that they can lift the shelves – with a combined area bigger than the state of California – as high as 15 feet.
Scientists believe that these unseen tides can carve into the ice from underneath and eventually cause pieces to break off, as part of the Larsen Ice Shelf broke off in 1995.


As an ice sheet rises with the tide, part of the grounded portion that normally rests on the ocean floor raises up. Researchers call the point of contact between the ice and the rock the grounding line, and the rise of the ice effectively moves the grounding line inland. That means that while the tide is high, more of the ice bottom is contacting the water than when the tide is low.

Wide reporting of massive sea level changes due to GHG emissions ,as the cause of the ice shelf break up ,when the erosion effects of natural phenomena are now identifiable.I would not expect this interesting development to be reported in the MSM .

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