Global warming yields “glacial earthquakes,” future sea level rise
From World Science online: Global warming yields “glacial earthquakes,” future sea level rise
In a [recent] study, seismologists reported an unexpected offshoot of global warming: “glacial earthquakes,” in which Manhattan-sized glaciers lurch unexpectedly. Glaciers are normally slow-moving masses of ice.
The lurches yield temblors up to magnitude 5.1 on the moment-magnitude scale, which is similar to the Richter scale, the researchers said. Glacial earthquakes in Greenland, they added, are most common in July and August, and have more than doubled in number since 2002.
The researchers, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. and Columbia University in New York, first described glacial earthquakes in 2003, but without reporting on their seasonality or changing frequency.
“People often think of glaciers as inert and slow-moving, but in fact they can also move rather quickly,” said Harvard’s Göran Ekström, one of the researchers. “Some of Greenland’s glaciers, as large as Manhattan and as tall as the Empire State Building, can move 10 meters (11 yards) in less than a minute, a jolt that is sufficient to generate moderate seismic waves.”
— DS
Technorati Tags: climate change, eco, environment, glaciers, global warming, Greenland, meltdown, Iceland, sea level