Glaciers, Ice and Global Warming Essay

Throughout the 20th Century, Glacier Melting has had a great impact all over the world. Glaciers are large sheets of snow and ice that are found on land. While melting glaciers are caused by global warming, glacier melting also impact the temperatures across the globe. Alot of things is threatened by glacier melting. There are many causes to Glacier Melting.

Earth has experienced many episodes of dramatic climate changes with different periods in earth history. There have been periods during which the entire planet has been covered in ice and at another time it has been scorchingly hot and dry. In this regards, earth has experienced at least three major periods of long- term frigid climate and ice ages interspersed with periods of warm climate. The last glacial period which current glaciers are the result of it, occurring during the last years of Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years age (Clayton, 1997). Indeed, glaciers present sensitive indicators of climate change and global warming and by estimating and monitoring the dynamic evolution of these ice masses, several

Global warming persists as one of the world’s biggest issues today that is causing several problems that include the world’s severe climate and rising sea levels while possibly being the main cause as to why all of mankind could go extinct. This global crisis is known as the steady increase in the world’s average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans that are proven to be permanently changing the world’s climate (Live Science, 2014). This phenomenon is strongly evident as Earth’s temperature has also increased by 2 degrees Celsius since the last century. As a result of this, Canadian glaciers are melting at a higher rate of 2 to 3 feet than of what it was a decade before (Lerner, 2014). All astoundingly happening while the Artic Canadian permafrost has begun to melt (Davidson,2015). The state of this issue in Canada does not seem to be improving as validated through both the scientific evidence as well as the blatant and irrefutable observable evidence.

We know that climate changes can be essential, but figuring out why they happen is intricate because there is not any rhyme or reason to why they happen. When I think of trying to decipher how and why weather happens, I think of how we try to predict El Niño and how it is not following the script. “The Wisconsin Glacial Stage is best known of the glaciations that affected North America, and it has been possible to divide Wisconsin into early, middle, and late episodes” (Britannica). This means that what we see around us now has changed not once, not twice but numerous times throughout evolution. Each time something else was effected, from landscape, vegetation, and animals that we are now exposed to. The current landscapes of areas that have encountered glaciers are much flatter. The vegetation from the past is now extinct. The soil of the land is very fertile but, because of the rocks it makes it hard to

Glaciers serve as an important indicator to the changes occurring on Earth. Global warming and climate change are definitely observable changes. For more than a century, Earth’s temperature has been increasing dramatically, thus contributing to the melting of Earth’s glaciers. Melting is observed in the ice sheets of Antarctica, Greenland and non-polar glaciers found around the world (Nat Geo). A small amount of ice is stored in non-polar glaciers in comparison to ice sheets. However non-polar glaciers have had a significant effect on sea-level rise. Non-polar glaciers have higher mass-balance sensitivity than the large ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. It is estimated about half of sea-level rise is attributable to the shrinkage of non-polar glaciers, according to glacier mass-balance data (Fujita). Some non-climatic factors that affect mass balances include oceanic circulation, sliding rates due to basal water supply and stability of ice shelves. Climatic factors include precipitation, temperature and sunlight. Recently, the spotlight has been placed on human impacts, particularly the

Sea ice is important for global climate. It separates the ocean from the atmosphere which is cold. Sea ice influence sunlight’s amount. It is essential for the human activity. In 2015, sea ice distance decreased to 4.41 million square kilometers. In addition it reached the minimum distance on September 11. The extent of sea ice increased through two seasons which was

Glaciers is familiar to most people, thinking as a big rigid piece of ice. However, under pressure, glaciers act like a soft plastic. They can bend and flow downhill like slow-motion river of ice. However, ice caps, ice sheets and really any masses of ice which remain year round are also considered glaciers. For typical glacier, snowfall builds up on its surface. Overtime, all the layers of snow press down on the layers beneath compacting the snow crystals into ice. This ice form the main body of the glaciers. Glaciers gain ice from snowfall. They lose ice through surface melting, melting from beneath and in some cases, by gradually flowing into lakes or oceans and breaking off into icebergs. In winter, new snow weighs down of the glacier pushing

Second, water expands into ice. The hydrogen molecules in water strengthen. Then, the molecules become locked into a specific position, which creates ice. While ice may not seem essential to life, it is if we wish to live as we are currently. Luckily, water is stored in ice, which is preventing coastal cities from flooding. Unfortunately, much of the world’s ice is slowing breaking apart, which can cause drastic sea level changes in the next 50 years. Cities such as, New York, and the coastal parts of Florida are at risk. If these cities flooded, it would cause mass migration to various parts of the U.S., which can result in various ways. Therefore, ice is essential to our current style of living.

A glacier is a balancing act between snow buildup and loss. As the ice moves down the slope, it passes a point where snowfall no longer accumulates, and it begins to waste. Over time the glacier begins to end; either at some point on land where the mass of ice cannot move forward any further, or into the water as a tidewater glacier. These glaciers generally lose a lot of their mass by calving; chunks breaking off in the water. Although a small portion of the total surface ice, glaciers hold a significant amount of water, and are particularly fragile with short term climate changes when compared to ice sheets. Ice sheets are large, continuous heat-sinks that should take a while to feel any impact from rising annual temperatures – however, ice sheets have their own potential instabilities. Glaciers make up a fraction of the total ice mass and it is divided up into a multitude of glaciers, so is going to react to changing temperatures on a shorter time frame than the ice sheets. What’s more, up to about 0.4 meters sea level equivalent of water might be entering the oceans sooner than later, although the inventory of worldwide glaciers is limited so the exact amount of ice is not known. A change in the seasonal flux of water into the local environments is going to be felt by a good number of

Changes in land formations during the ice ages happened in different ways, but most of them relate to the process of glaciation. During the Ice Age, glaciation, the process of being covered by ice sheets took place over giant land masses and entire continents which is known as “continental glaciation”. As this large scale glaciation took place, changes in land formations occurred, that of which are uncommon to be formed today. They include moraines, drumlins, kames, eskers, and Kettle Lakes. Most of the evidence that was discovered has to do with the Earth’s geography, the physical features of the Earth. The ways these glaciers affected the landscape were separated into three different categories: erosion, transportation and deposition.

The Arctic is global warming’s canary in the coal mine. It is a highly sensitive area which is profoundly affected by the changing climate. The average temperature in the Arctic is rising twice as fast as elsewhere in the world (nrdc.org). Because of this, the ice cap is getting thinner, melting away, and rupturing. Here is an example of this; the largest ice block in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, had been around for 3000 years before it started cracking in 2000 (nrdc.org) By 2002, the Ward Hunt has cracked completely through and had started breaking into smaller pieces. The melting ice caps are affecting the earth and its inhabitants in many ways. In this paper, the following concepts and subjects will be

An Ice Age is a period of geologic time in which the Earth’s climate sees a dramatic drop in temperatures. This basically means that it is a lot cooler than it was in different parts of earth’s geologic history. As a matter of fact, earth is believed to be in the middle of a glaciation period currently because of our polar ice sheets. As we know it today there were about six ice ages that have occurred throughout the history of the earth. Glaciation periods have helped shape the earth as we know it today and has helped humanity progress down its evolutionary track. Though it is agreed upon that several ice ages have occurred during earth history, the cause of these cycles is still a mystery waiting to be solved.

Glacial ice is created through the annual deposition of snow that piles up in continuous sequences due to vast plateaus (Bethan, 2014). There are 2 main ice sheets present on Earth today. The first one is located in Greenland and dates up to 125,000 years ago while the other is the Antarctic ice sheet that dates up to 800,000 years ago (Ruddiman, 2013). Ice thickness can provide clues about the local precipitation and thicker layers corresponds to greater snowfall which tells us about global temperatures due to the fact that more snow tends to accumulate at the poles during global warm spells. However, majority of the data about past climate is gained from ice cores, are produced when the ice sheets are drilled on the major axis of growth at about 4-5 inches in diameter and up to lengths of 1m in order to get a vertical core that can be stored for analysis. Ice cores are not limited to polar regions, they can be found on 6 of the 7 continents of Earth and can range in thickness from mountain glaciers to continental ice sheet (Ruddiman, 2013) (Figure 2). However the 2

The environment has become a huge target for greenhouse gases. Land ice, such as glaciers and icebergs, existing in different continents, have fallen victim to the toxic gases polluting the atmosphere. When greenhouse gases trap in heat, it affects colder locations that cannot sustain the higher temperatures. The warmth created by the gases causes the bodies of ice within those regions to melt. Scientist has observed that the gases have led to a massive decrease of ice in Antarctica and Greenland. As reported by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, they found that in Greenland “from 1979 to 2006, summer melt on the ice sheet increased by 30 percent, reaching a new record in 2007” (Quick Facts on Ice Sheets 2). In addition, “Greenland ice loss doubled between 1996 and 2005” (Global Climate Change 1). Antarctic has not faced as much effect compared to Greenland, but “in 2012, Arctic summer sea ice shrank to the lowest extent on record” and they still continue to slowly lose ice at a pace of “13.4 percent per decade”(Global Climate Change 1).

Over the recent decades, the Earth’s warming climate has had a tremendous effect on glaciers. Glaciers contain snow that has turned into ice after snow has layered on and froze because they are formed on the coldest parts of the Earth. In order for glaciers to maintain their size, a greater amount of snow has to fall each year than the amount that melts off (Help Save Nature). Since enough snow isn’t falling to replace the ice that is melting off, the glaciers are diminishing. Everyday ice all over the world gets shrinks in size, which threatens the lives of arctic animals. Arctic ice has thinned and shrunk dramatically over the past couple decades. The melting rate of the glaciers is speeding up. The extent of arctic ice “declined by about 10 percent in the past 30 years”(Glick). Ice naturally melts during the summer time, but the amount of ice that has melted is not all from nature. It is over the average amount of summer ice melt. Some countries depend on the ice that naturally melts off of glaciers for fresh drinking water, agricultural use, and some even depend on it for electricity power. “The famed snows of Kilimanjaro have melted more than 80 percent since 1912” (Glick). Some glaciers are melting so fast that researchers believe that they could disappear completely in upcoming years. For example National