Canadian Arctic Islands Playing Greater Role in Sea Level Rise than Previously Supposed
21.04.2011 - Water & Oceans, Ice & Snow, Arctic
According to a study recently published in the journal Nature, the melting glaciers and ice caps on Canadian Arctic islands could play a more significant part in sea level rise than what was previously believed. Between 2004 and 2009, the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago lost significant quantities of ice and snow, brought on by unusually warm temperatures. According to Alex Gardner of the University of Michigan, lead author of the study, the Canadian region was the largest contributor to sea level rise outside of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets.
While 99% of the world's land ice is contained in the ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland, they only account for half of the land ice that is lost to oceans. The other half of the ice released to the oceans, the scientists found, comes from smaller mountain glaciers and ice caps such as those in the Canadian Arctic, Alaska, and Patagonia.
To conduct the study, researchers from an international group of institutions performed numerical simulations and then used two different satellite-based techniques to independently validate their model results. What they found was that during the first three years of the study, the Canadian islands lost an average of 29 km³ per year, only to speed up to an average loss of 92 km³ per year during the next period of the study. The team found that a 1°C increase in average air temperatures resulted in an additional 62.5 km³ of melting.
