Monday, July 13, 2015

Natural geothermal heating in melt-hit Antarctic region 'SURPRISINGLY high'

Geothermal heating - from within the Earth's core, not the possibly warming air or sea - beneath the much-studied West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been measured for the first time ever, and been found to be "surprisingly high".
The West Antarctic sheet is the part of the Antarctic ice cap thought to be easiest to melt and thus worries over global warming and sea-level rise lead to it being investigated much more than other parts of the frozen austral continent. Some parts of it, for instance the Pine Island Glacier, have appeared at times to be melting faster and faster, though it is not clear that this is due to global warming

Read more at the UK Register
(Hat tip: KimR)

0 comments:

Post a Comment