Study aids understanding of big ice fields, warming

[Thom Little]

Columbia Glacier has retreated nine miles over the past 20 years in a meltdown punctuated by ice quakes and submarine gushes of water triple the flow of the Mississippi River.

"It's 50,000 cubic meters per second ... for seven minutes," said glaciologist Tad Pfeffer early this month from the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

"It comes out of the bottom of the glacier, and it flows up the front of the ice cliff and spreads out on the surface."

The findings about the Prince William Sound glacier were announced at the annual meeting, where Pfeffer and his team presented three scientific reports about the Columbia's continuing breakup and mysterious dynamics.

Columbia Glacier has now pulled back to the halfway point of its expected retreat. But it may be on the cusp of a much faster withdrawal across a broad inner bay, Pfeffer said.



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AK_COLUMBIA_GLACIER_AKOL-?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-31-17-38-34

[philb]

1. Such is going on all over the world; GW is having unprecedented effects

http://www.flcv.com/green.html