Council Chronicle

Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Log in
  • National News
  • Business & Economy
  • Technology
  • Science
  • Health
  • About CC
    • Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy GDPR
    • Terms of Use

Pages

  • About Council Chronicle
  • Contact Us
  • Our Team
  • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Terms of Use

Recent Posts

  • Former Wife of Prolific Arizona Serial Killer Speaks Up First Time after Scottsdale Suicide June 29, 2018
  • Indiana Couple Arrested After Authorities Discovered Cruel Punishment Device in Home June 28, 2018
  • Schizophrenic Oregon Man Who Was Seen Carrying His Mother’s Head Committed to Psychiatric Facility June 27, 2018
  • Texas Lawmen Looking for Four Suspect Who Tortured Child During Home Invasion June 27, 2018
  • Retirement Home Resident Reported Fake Fire to Draw In Firefighters and Shoot Them June 26, 2018
  • Arkansas Man Kills Wife, Sticks Body In Chest Freezer Before Committing Suicide June 26, 2018
  • West Virginia Man Arrested After He Tried to Baptize Family by Drowning Them in the Bathtub June 25, 2018

West Antarctic Ice Sheet Underpinned By High Geothermal Heat Flows

July 13, 2015 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

Email, RSS Follow
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Underpinned By High Geothermal Heat Flows, according to a new UC Santa Cruz Study

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Underpinned By High Geothermal Heat Flows, according to a new UC Santa Cruz Study

A new study conducted on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet suggests that one factor that may lead to its melting is the heat flow beneath it.

Geothermal sources are the underpinning of the unusually high amounts of heat flows at the base of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The study, conducted by scientists at UC Santa Cruz brings a new body of data for analyzing the rapid decline of the Ice Sheet during the past ten years.

Of course, there is a multitude of studies dealing with the advanced melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, yet the UC Santa Cruz research, led by Andrew Fisher – Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the same University, does not pitch geothermal heating as a cause of ice loss.

Rather, it looks at geothermal heating as a pre-existent slow-working factor which, combined with a multitude of others may lead to further ice loss in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

As Professor Fisher explained:

“The ice sheet developed and evolved with the geothermal heat flux coming up from below-it’s part of the system. But this could help explain why the ice sheet is so unstable. When you add the effects of global warming, things can start to change quickly”.

Looking into geothermal sources that spark the high heat flow underneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may provide insight on the development of lakes also underpinning the ice sheet. Lakes and streams forming beneath the West Antarctic are lubricating the ice streams’ motion, carrying them to the onto the ice shelves. But too much water is detrimental to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Collapsing and melting are incumbent if the volume of heat flows beneath the West Antarctic Ice sheet surpasses certain levels. Nonetheless, the measurements on which the UC Santa Cruz study is based are representative of only one location. Thus, the team warned that it is possible the values of the high heat flow varies from other locations across the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

“This is the first geothermal heat flux measurement made below the west Antarctic ice sheet, so we don’t know how localized these warm geothermal conditions might be. This is a region where there is volcanic activity, so this measurement may be due to a local heat source in the crust”,

added Professor Andrew Fischer.

The UC Santa Cruz study was conducted as part of the Antarctic drilling project titled WISSARD and financially supported by the National Science Foundation.

The specific location referred to in the study is the Subglacial Lake Whillans, found underneath the ice, at half a mile depth. A thermal probe, designed at the UC Santa Cruz laboratories, was lowered in the sediments beneath Lake Whillans.

Here, different depth measurements held different temperatures, representative for a change rate five times that of continental temperature change. Thus, the geothermal sparked high heat flows came to the attention of the team.

The UC Santa Cruz study is complementary to other recent studies that have looked at the warm ocean currents flowing beneath the ice sheet and accelerating the loss of ice in the West Antarctic Ice sheet, known to be more unstable.

The results of the study have been published in the July 10th issue of Science Advances journal.

Photo Credits wikimedia.org

Email, RSS Follow

Filed Under: Science

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 18 other subscribers

Recent Articles

ethics in dictionary highlighted

NIH Will Examine Ethical Problems of One of Their Studies

March 27, 2018 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

biomutant character

Eleven-Minutes Long Biomutant Trailer Prepares You for Amazing Gameplay and Mechanics

August 26, 2017 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

intime alibaba

Intime May Be Acquired By Its Founder And Alibaba

January 11, 2017 By Jesse Skelton Leave a Comment

Newborn baby

A Woman Gave Birth to Baby After Fertilizing Frozen Ovary

December 16, 2016 By Lee Raulin Leave a Comment

Parkes radio telescope

Hunting Aliens with Parkes Radio Telescope

November 11, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

man suffering from election season stress

Stressed Out? Here Are 7 Ways to Get Rid of Election Season Stress

October 19, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

Disney World wants to prevent fraud.

Disney World prevents fraud by scanning children’s fingers

September 8, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

artificial intelligence

How will the Artificial Intelligence will affect our life by 2030?

September 3, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

opera sync

Opera Sync resets passwords after it was hacked

August 30, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

viping

Why are teens viping – flavours or nicotine?

August 26, 2016 By Dustin Smith Leave a Comment

sex abuse

Doctors in sex abuse cases return to work. What happens with their victims?

August 25, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

affection

Affection or food – which is more important for a dog?

August 19, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

Chipotle restaurant

Chipotle to Open its First Burger Joint

July 30, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

Chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A Rolls Out Protein-Packed Grill Breakfast Sandwich

July 20, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

Related Articles

  • Two neutron stars colliding, forming a gravitational wave

    Are Colliding Wormholes the Real Producers of Gravitational Waves? (Study)

    Jun 15, 2018
  • Trepanation

    Ancient Peruvian Doctors Better at Trepanation Than Civil War Surgeons, New Study Finds

    Jun 13, 2018
  • Songbirds

    UK and Germany Biologists Closer to Understanding How Two-Way Communication Works in the Animal Kingdom

    Jun 6, 2018
  • nile crocodiles on white sand in a museum

    Crocodiles Listen to Bach as Researchers Study Their Brains in New Experiment (Study)

    May 9, 2018
  • view of coast from isle of skye

    Scientists Discover Rare, Giant Dinosaur Tracks in Scotland (Study)

    Apr 5, 2018
  • Intelligent Vehicles

    Stanford to Spearhead Intelligent Vehicles Revolution with Cars that can See Around the Corner

    Mar 7, 2018
  • Floating robot and ISS

    Floating Robot To Join the ISS Crew in June

    Mar 5, 2018
  • exploding star

    First Ever Photo of a Star Exploding Captured by an Amateur Photographer

    Feb 26, 2018
  • little skate at the bottom of the ocean

    Did Ancient Fish Start Walking Before Even Leaving the Ocean? (Study)

    Feb 12, 2018
  • Mayan pyramid in Guatemala

    Laser Technology Reveals More Maya Ruins in Guatemala

    Feb 4, 2018

Categories

  • Breaking News
  • Business & Economy
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • National News
  • Nature
  • Science
  • Technology
  • World News

Copyright © 2021 CouncilChronicle.com

About · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Contact