Tag Archives: Antarctica

Eemian sea level rise update: just 1.6-2.2m from Greenland – Antarctic ice sheet less stable than we think?

Last week we learned 5 percent of the Eemian sea level rise was thermal expansion of the oceans. Today we learn the slightly higher temperatures led Greenland to ‘only’ add an extra 1.6-2.2m. Do we fail to spot the Antarctic … Continue reading →

Eemian sea level rise of 8m was 95% meltwater – another paleo warning?

Sounds like there’s new food to calibrate our oceans’ sea level sensitivity. In red the image shows inundations around the Gulf of Mexico under Eemian sea levels. That’s ‘bye bye Houston, New Orleans, Miami.’ Two days ago we looked at … Continue reading →

Ocean warming speeds up ice sheet melting Greenland and Antarctica

In March we learned ice sheet formation is two-sided. On Sunday, sipping coffee whilst reading the latest Nature Geoscience, we learned the same might go for ice sheet melting. If so, melting would likely accelerate over this century and sea … Continue reading →

Antarctic krill promotes CO2 uptake by plankton through iron fertilisation

Iron is very rare in the upper layers of the world´s oceans, where photosynthesis is possible and therefore biological activity and concentration of living biomass is highest, making the mineral a growth-limiting nutrient in 40 percent of the world’s oceans, … Continue reading →

NOAA’s analysis of climate records 2010: trend consistent with climate change

Here on Bitsofscience.org we hope to be your climate records reference point, so we try not to miss any of the major reports on temperature trends or Arctic melting records. That means we definitely could not ignore yesterday’s release by … Continue reading →

Rapid krill decline: 80% over 35 years

Antarctica does not escape the Holocene Mass Extinction. Krill numbers have dropped sharply since the mid-70s and as a consequence penguins too are in decline, says new study in Monday’s edition of PNAS, that blames the ecological disturbances on climate … Continue reading →