Image of the Day

Two people look into a 17-metre-deep canyon carved over the course of
several years by turbulent water overflow from a large melt lake southwest of
Ilulissat, Greenland. Polar ice sheets are now melting three times faster than
in the 1990s, but so far that’s added 11.1 millimetres to already rising global
sea levels, a new giant scientific study says. Photograph by: Ian Joughin , AP
OTTAWA — In what’s billed as a landmark study, an international
team of experts — including a researcher from the University of Ottawa
— has produced the most accurate assessment of ice sheet losses in
Antarctica and Greenland to date.
Their findings, to be published Friday in the journal Science, confirm
that Antarctica and Greenland are both losing ice. The melting has
generated a 11.1-millimetre increase in global sea levels since 1992 —
one-fifth of the total sea level rise over that period.
Moreover, the rate of sea level rise is accelerating, rising by nearly
one millimetre per year now compared with 0.27 millimetres per year in
the 1990s, the researchers say.
Melting ice sheets now account for about one-third of the annual rise
in sea levels. Melting mountain glaciers and the thermal expansion of the
ocean account for the rest.
According to the study, the change has been particularly acute in
Greenland, where the rate of ice loss has increased almost five-fold since
the mid-1990s. Overall, Greenland and Antarctica are now losing more
than three times as much ice as they were in the 1990s, the study found.
“With this new data, we can say with confidence that the ice sheets
have been losing mass over the last 10 to 15 years,” said the University of
Ottawa’s Glenn Milne, the only Canadian participant in the study.