Baffin Island Ice Caps Shrinking Fast
29.01.2008 - Other
Using radiocarbon dating of dead plant material, a new University of Colorado at Boulder study has shown that ice caps on the northern plateau of Baffin Island (Canadian Arctic) have shrunk by more than 50 percent in the last half century. These ice caps are expected to disappear by the middle of the century, even with no additional warming.
The analysis of carbon 14 in quartz crystals also indicated that for several thousand years prior to the last century, there had been more ice cover on Baffin Island. That makes the recent ice-cap reduction on Baffin Island even more striking.
The study also showed two distinct bursts of Baffin Island ice-cap growth commencing about 1280 A.D. and 1450 A.D. Coupled with ice-core records of increases in stratospheric aerosols tied to major tropical volcanic eruptions, these findings provide evidence that the eruptions were the trigger for the Little Ice Age.
