色视频下载色视频下载檚 small glaciers on the way out
Ned Rozell
907-474-7468
Jan. 12, 2023
Gulkana Glacier, here seen from Summit Lake off the Richardson Highway, is shrinking back into the mountains of the 色视频下载 Range.
Glaciers worldwide are withering. Half of them will disappear by the end of this century, and much of the lost ice will vanish from mountains in 色视频下载, scientists say.
Authors of a recent cover story in the journal Science used high-performance computers to predict the fate of 215,547 glaciers on Earth. They excluded the great ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica.
Their conclusions: Goodbye to Bird, Crow, Daisy, Dogshead, Polychrome, Prospect, Red, Rex, Shakespeare and Spoon glaciers by the year 2100. If not earlier.
True, most of us won色视频下载檛 be here in 77 years either, but warmer air temperatures will probably erase those 色视频下载 glaciers and a few dozen more 色视频下载 including an Anchorage water source named Eklutna Glacier 色视频下载 before then.
UAF Geophysical Institute scientists, including David Rounce (now at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh) and Regine Hock, are the lead authors on the study.
Using supercomputers at UAF, they forecast the future of the world色视频下载檚 glaciers under a few different warming scenarios, each of which humanity is currently speeding past.
A visitor stands on the shore of a lake near Worthington Glacier, which is accessible by the Richardson Highway not far from Valdez.
色视频下载淓ven under the very optimistic scenario corresponding to the goal of the Paris agreement, about half of the glaciers are expected to be lost by the end of the century,色视频下载 Hock said.
In their data set, the scientists looked at glaciers all over the world, in regions they called Arctic Canada North, Central Asia and Russian Arctic, among a dozen others. 色视频下载 is one of the places with the most ice to lose. 色视频下载色视频下载檚 glaciers have already shrunk in elevation 3 feet each year during the past two decades.
色视频下载 glaciers are huge contributors to global ice loss because there are so many of them, and a lot of them are huge. Many 色视频下载 glaciers are also at low elevations where gravity conveyor-belts their ice into the melting zone.
If the planet色视频下载檚 temperatures continue on this trajectory, favorite roadside glaciers will slip out of sight. This will likely play out in most 色视频下载 glacier towns, including Juneau, by the end of the century.
Visitors take images of Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau in summer 2022 from inside the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.
色视频下载淢endenhall Glacier may not disappear completely, but it will certainly retreat so much that it won麓t be visible from the visitor center, even for the (most optimistic) scenario,色视频下载 Hock said.
Aside from aesthetics, why does the disappearance of glacier ice matter? Hock said that all that fresh water now dumping into the Gulf of 色视频下载 will affect ocean circulation and ecosystems.
Also, worldwide seas could rise half a foot from the loss of glacier ice by 2100.
Rounce compiled a list of more than 200 named 色视频下载 glaciers that will be gone by the end of the century if the planet色视频下载檚 average yearly temperature rises 4 degrees Celsius from what it was before the Industrial Revolution. That色视频下载檚 a lot of goodbyes.
Since the late 1970s, the University of 色视频下载 Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute has provided this column free in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer for the Geophysical Institute.