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2-14: Sea-Level Rise

Short Summaries of Recent Research

• Collapse of Antarctic Ice Sheet was Accelerated by Global Warming
  
  
• Climate Change Emigrants
  
  
• Thresholds, Reversibility, and Hysteresis
  
  
• Ice-Loss from Antarctica Accelerates Sea-Level Rise
  
  
• Antarctic Ice Accelerating Toward the Sea
  
  
• Exhibit Shows Loss of Glaciers in Europe
  
  
• Vanishing of the Greenland Ice Sheet Due to Global Warming Raises Sea Level by 20 Feet (7 Meters)
  
  
• Sea-Level Rise: Thermal Expansion vs. Melting Glaciers
  
  
• Rising Tide Encroaches on Coastal Areas
  
  
• Mountain Ecosystems Reveal High Vulnerability to Climate Change
  
  
• Greenland Ice Sheet Meltdown Underway.
  
  
• Saving Venice from Sea-Level Rise
  
  
• Levels of the Red Sea and Abrupt Climate Change
  
  
• Ice Shelf Collapse Increases Glacier Flow
  
  
• Demise of Mountain Glaciers: Burning the Library
  
  
• Accelerated warming observed in the South Polar region
  
  
• Alaska Glaciers Contributing to Sealevel Rise
  
  
• Increased Freshwater in the Ross Sea
  
  
• Stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
  
  
• Global Warming Blamed for Increased Flooding
  
  
• Enhanced Warming at High Latitudes
  
  
• Global Ice Volume, Deep Ocean Temperatures, and Climate Surprises
  
  
• West Antarctic Ice Sheet has Collapsed in a Previous Warm Period.
  
  
• Antarctica and Greenland mass balance problem. This exercise was created by Joe Smith, a senior in Meteorology (Class of 1996). For additional information about this exercise, email: sigep@iastate.edu.
  
  
• One Small Ice Shelf Dies, One Giant Iceberg Born. British Antarctic Survey Press Release, February 1995.
  
  

Websites

• Islands Battle Rising Seas for Survival
  
  
• Arctic Rivers 'Flowing Faster'
  
  
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
  
  
• Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster
  
  
• Melting Glaciers Diminished Gulf Stream, Cooled Western Europe During Last Ice Age
  
  
• The Melting Ice of Greenland
  
  
• Current Rate of Sea-Level Change
  
  
• Ice shelves breaking up due to decades of higher temperatures
  
  
• Sea level rise due to global warming
  
  
• Thinning of the Artic sea-ice
  
  
• Potential impact of sea-level rise: Bangladesh
  
  
• Potential impact of sea-level rise: Nile Delta
  
  
• Higher temperatures in Antarctica have let to disintegration of some ice shelves, Chemical & Engineering News, November 27, 1995.
  
  
• Potential impact of sea-level rise: Nile Delta (0.5 to 1.0 meters)
  
  
• Antarctic ice sheet movie.
  
  
• Antarctic Rivers of Ice
  
  
• Potential Impacts of Sea-Level Rise on Populations and Agriculture from the Sustainable Development Dept. (SD), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
  
  
• National Snow and Ice Data Center
  
  
• Antarctic ice shelves breaking up due to decades of higher temperatures
  
  
• Ice-Core Evidence of Abrupt Climate Change, by Richard B. Alley
  
  

Additional References

• Smith, L.C., Y. Sheng, G.M. MacDonald, and L.D. Hinzman, 2005: Disappearing Arctic lakes. Science, 308, 1429.
  
  
• Hansen, J., and Co-authors, 2005: Earth's energy imbalance: Confirmation and implications. Science, 308, 1431-1435.
  
  
• Day, C., 2004: Sea-level rise exacerbates coastal erosion. Physics Today, February, 24-26.
  
  
• Shephard, A., D. Wingham, T. Payne, and P. Skvarca, 2003: Larsen Ice Shelf has progressively thinned. Science, 302, 865-869.
  
  
• Rignot, E., A. Rivera, and G. Casassa, 2003: Contribution of the patagonia icefields of South America to sea level rise. Science, 302, 434-437.
  
  
• Munk, W., 2003: Ocean freshening, sea level rising. Science, 300, 2041-2043.
  
  
• Zervas, C., and D. Wright, 2003: Sea Level Change Tracked Along US Coastline. EOS, 84, 169.
  
  
• Doran, P. T., J. C. Priscu, W. B. Lyons, J. E. Walsh, A. G. Fountain, D. M. McKnight, D. L. Moorhead, R. A. Virginia, D. H. Wall, G. D. Clow, C. H. Fritsen, C. P. McKay, and A. N. Parsons, 2002: Antarctic climate cooling and terrestrial ecosystem response. Nature, 15, 517-520.
  
  
• lark, P. U., J. X. Mitrovica, G. A. Milne, and M. E. Tamisiea, 2002: Sea-level fingerprinting as a direct test for the source of global meltwater pulse 1A. Science, 295, 2438-2341
  
  
• Sabadini, R., 2002: Ice sheet collapse and sea level change. Science, 295, 2376-2377
  
  
• Houghton, J. T., L. G. Meira Filho, B. A. Callander N. Harris, A. Kattenberg, and K. Maskell, 1996: Climate Change 1995. The Science of Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, 363-397.
  
  
• Houghton, J. T., G. J. Jenkins, and J. J. Ephraums, 1990: Climate Change, The IPCC Scientific Assessment. Cambridge University Press. p. 263-278.
  
  
• Borecker, W. S., 1994: Massive Iceberg Discharges as Triggers for Global Climate Change. Nature, 372, 421.
  
  
• Clark, P. U., D. R. Macayeal, H. T. Andrews, and P. J. Bartlein, 1995: Ice sheets play important role in climate change. EOS 76, 265-270.
  
  
• Fahnestock, Mark. 1996: An Ice-Shelf Breakup. Science, 271, 775-776.
  
  
• Houghton, J.T., G.J. Jenkins, J.J. Ephraums, eds, 1990: 1990 Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, 263-279.
  
  
• Nicholls, R.J., and C. Small, 2002: Improved estimates of coastal population and exposure to hazards released. EOS, 83, 301-305.
  
  
• Rignot, E., and S. S. Jacobs, 2002: Rapid bottom melting widespread near Antarctic ice sheet grounding lines. Science, 296, 2020-2022.
  
  
• Colman, S. M., 2002: A fresh look at glacial floods. Science, 296, 1251-1252.
  
  
• Paterson. W. S. B., and N. Reeh, 2001: Thinning of the ice sheet in northwest Greenland over the past forty years. Nature, 414, 60-61.
  
  
• Church, J. A., 2001: How fast are sea levels rising? Science, 294, 802-803.
  
  
• Cabanes, C., A. Cazenave, C. Le Provost, 2001: Sea level rise during past 40 years determined from satellite and in situ observations. Science, 294, 840-842.
  
  
• Mitrovica, J. X., M. E. Tamisiea, J. L. Davis, and G. A. Milne, 2001: Recent mass balance of polar ice sheets inferred from patterns of global sea-level change. Nature, 409, 1026-1029.
  
  
• Blunier, T., and E. J. Brook, 2001: Timing of millennial-scale climate change in Anartica and Greenland during the last galcial period. Science, 291, 109-112.
  
  
• Bindschadler, R., and P. Vornberger, 1998: Changes in the West Antarctic ice sheet since 1963 from declassified satellite photography. Science, 279, 689-692.
• Bindschadler, R., 1998: Future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Science 282, 428-430
  
  
• de Wolde, J. R., R. Bintania and J. Oerlemans. 1995: Thermal Expansion of the Ocean Over the Last Hundred Years.J. Climate, 8, 2881-2891.
  
  
• Goodess, C.M. & J. P. Palutikof & T. D. Davies. 1992: The Nature and Causes of Climate Change, Assessing the Long Term Future. Studies in Climatology Series.
  
  
• Oerlemans, J., 1994: Quantifying Global Warming from the Retreat of Glaciers. Science, 5 April 1994, 243-245.
  
  
• Raymo, M. E., 1998: Glacial puzzles. Science, 281, 1467-1468.