Glacier Melt | Distant-Help

Study finds 3 Northwest glaciers shrinking faster

By Les Blumenthal and Erika Bolstad, McClatchy Newspapers

Climate change is shrinking three of the nation’s most studied glaciers at an accelerated rate, and government scientists say that finding bolsters global concerns about rising sea levels and the availability of fresh drinking water. Known as “benchmark glaciers,” the South Cascade Glacier in Washington [...]

Swiss glaciers ‘in full retreat’

By Jonathan Amos Science reporter, BBC News, San Francisco

Swiss glaciers are melting away at an accelerating rate and many will vanish this century if climate projections are correct, two new studies suggest.

One assessment found that some 10 cubic km of ice have been lost from 1,500 glaciers over the past nine years.
The other study, based on a sample of 30 representative glaciers, indicates the group’s members are now losing a metre of thickness every year.
Both pieces of work come out of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
“The trend is negative, but what we see is that the trend is also steepening,” said Matthias Huss from the Zurich university’s Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology.
“Glaciers are starting to lose mass increasingly fast,” he told BBC News.

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