NASA Study Finds Glacier Doing Double Time

A NASA-funded study found the world's fastest glacier, Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae, doubled its speed of ice flow between 1997 and 2003. The study provides key evidence of newly discovered relationships between ice sheets, sea level rise and climate warming. The study appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
Jakobshavn Isbrae is Greenland's largest outlet glacier, draining 6.5 percent of Greenland's ice sheet area. The stream's near-doubling of ice flow from land into the ocean is important, because this one glacier has increased the rate of sea level rise by approximately four percent of the 20th century rate of increase.

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All News summaries for December 04, 2004