Displaying items by tag: melting ice

The centuries-old Swiss village of Blatten has been devastated by a catastrophic glacier collapse. Prior concerns about the stability of the Birch Glacier had prompted authorities to evacuate all 300 residents and livestock. Days later, over nine million cubic metres of ice and rock cascaded down, obliterating homes, landmarks, and even the village church. The collapse, which registered on national seismic monitors, left Blatten buried in debris and triggered flood concerns by blocking the River Lonza. Experts described the destruction as ‘unprecedented’. Due to global warming, the rapid thaw of permafrost, long considered the glue of the Alps, is destabilising entire mountainsides. Although the timely evacuation saved lives (only one man is missing), the complete loss of the village has raised new alarms about the pace and impact of climate change on vulnerable mountain communities.

Antarctica’s melting ice sheet could retreat much faster than previously thought. Withdrawing glaciers in Antarctica currently retreat by up to 30 metres a day. But if they sped up, the extra melt water would have big implications for sea-level rises globally. Ice losses from Antarctica caused by climate change have already pushed up the surface of the world's oceans by nearly 1 cm since the 1990s. Researchers have been looking at a great swathe of seafloor which twenty thousand years ago was witness to a massive ice sheet in the process of withdrawal and break-up: the maximum retreat was 600+ metres a day. Their research is recorded in this week's edition of the journal Nature. Scientists look into the geological past to tell us what is possible. Satellite records only cover forty years or so. This geological record has actually happened in the real world, not in a computer model world.