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Frozen lake numbers decreasing
#3
Article:https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47030057

  Global warming is causing extreme and unpredictable weather changes that have caused a shift in habitats, wildlife populations and various other impacts. As our dependency on fossil fuels increased, so did the number of greenhouse gases we released and the impact we have on the earth. The Thwaites expedition was a way to research how global warming would impact the mass of glaciers.  
  This expedition to the Thwaites glaciers was only 52 days of a 5 year long US-UK research program to find out how the mass will respond to global warming. It is important as it is said to be the most vulnerable due to an off-balance of the amount of snow and ice that is melting. The melting causes warm water to get under the glacier, causing the ground underneath it to erode. This produces what is called " Marine Ice-Sheet Instability", which means that that the glacier is unstable and once it is knocked over, it can cause an irreversible decline. It is predicted that if the frozen bulks were to give away, it would add 80 cm to the world ocean height. In order to gather data on the behaviour of the glacier and the ice-water stream, they have done multiple testings by taking data in various forms. They tested the front and top of the ice stream with instruments and performed a seal tagging exercise. In the seal tagging exercise,  they will capture mammals off of the islands near the glacier and they will fit them with sensors. The sensors will tell scientists how the oceanic conditions are in remote places that are in the vicinity by showing the physical environment. The other way they will be gathering data is by taking samples of the sediment cores at the front of the glacier, this gives them information about the ocean currents and the conditions it was encountering perhaps a few thousand years ago.

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Messages In This Thread
Frozen lake numbers decreasing - by Tamara Taylor - 02-03-2019, 05:18 AM
Expedition to the Thwaites Glaciers - by SuhaanaSaini - 02-04-2019, 04:10 AM

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