EARTHSS 21 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Sea Level Rise, West Antarctica, Ice Sheet
23 Jul 2016
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Document Summary
100,000-year cycle with carbon dioxide/temperature also creates a 100,000-year cycle with sea level and ice: warmer, interglacials- higher sea levels. Sea level steadily increasing (this increase is accelerating) Causes of sea level rise today: water warming up. Atmosphere continuing to warm: no numbers for greenland and antarctica because we didn"t have satellites. Should be most worried about antarctica (in terms of sea level rise: melting antarctica will take millions of years. Satellites will orbit across the poles and beam down laser/radio waves; the time it takes for it to hit the surface and bounce back (listening for the reflection); get a sense of how ice sheet is changing through time. Gravity measurements (grace satellites) are great for greenland and antarctica. Greenland: ice sheet not as exposed to ocean. Antarctica: always so cold we don"t care as much about air temperatures. Greenland ice sheet: mountain ranges around the edge. Goes beneath sea level in the middle because the glaciers squash.
