Sep 14, 2010

Greenland Ice Loss - Not So Bad

Estimates of the rate of ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica, should be halved, according to Dutch and US scientists.

Several teams have estimated Greenland and West Antarctica are shedding billions of tons of ice per year. However, according to the new study, published in the September issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, those ice estimates fail to correct for a phenomenon known as glacial isostatic adjustment.

"We have concluded that the Greenland and West Antarctica ice caps are melting at approximately half the speed originally predicted. If the figures for overall sea level rise are accurate, icesheet loss would be contribute about 30 percent, rather than roughly half." The rest would come mainly from thermal expansion, meaning that as the sea warms it rises. Darn, now we have to wait another few hundred years to swim in the Los Angeles Basin.