Glaciers (Impacts and Hazard)

[kwesi Quartey]

Can anyone give some ideas on on this topic i've had a look around on this one but i'm kinda stuck.

[Fishteacher73]

Currently glaciers are not a threat, most are actaully all receding.

 

As for impacts, glaciers cause massive change to the landscape. From many of the lakes to the fiertile soil of the great planes are attributed to glaciers.

 

As for biological impact, I think it would really be hard to imply that glaciers really had much effect. Aside from some isolation incedents, ambient temperature had probably much more of an impact. Glaciers really moved to slow to suddenly overtake massive feeding areas, so again it would probably have been the climate change that had the impact, and glaciers were just along for the ride in a biological sense.

[Turtle]

Many glaciers actually are growing, & not just a few. The Arctic Ocean ice cover is melting, but this is thought because of active undersea volcanoes recently discovered. They recently announced a contest to name the newest glacier just formed in the Mt. St. Helens' crater. Despite the current activity at the mountain, that glacier persists. You can see this glacier in the Live Mt. St. Helens thread on this site.

Your original post needs more specificity. Impact on What? Hazzard to what? Look up some pics online of Half Dome in Yosemite; the missing half was ground away :) by a glacier & this is solid granite. At other sites in Yosemite, you can stand on granite slopes which lay under a glacier & the rock is polished smooth as a billiard ball.

[alxian]

rofl... "AHHHHK the glaciers are comming, the glaciers are COMMING!!!!"

 

"what's his problem???" sarcastic reply

 

but...

 

seriously..

 

the fresh water (again in keeping with a day after tomorrow-esque dooms day fortelling) the fresh water released into the oceans from glacial recession may cause problems.. not much for us it'll mean more fresh water for us landlubbers. but for ocean ecosystems and the climate as a whole fresh water and currents may be affected.. not tomorrow of course, but soon enough that we may see it happen.

[Buffy]

the fresh water (again in keeping with a day after tomorrow-esque dooms day fortelling) the fresh water released into the oceans from glacial recession may cause problems.. not much for us it'll mean more fresh water for us landlubbers. but for ocean ecosystems and the climate as a whole fresh water and currents may be affected.. not tomorrow of course, but soon enough that we may see it happen.

Just a lil' bit o' fresh water (well, relatively speaking) is supposed to be enough to turn the Gulf Stream off, potentially leaving Europe looking something like northern Siberia. Could happen in a matter of a few decades according to some...

 

Chilly,

Buffy

[alxian]

a little chilly weather?? has its perks.. :)

[Turtle]

In fact, the temperatures during the ice ages were only a few degree cooler than today in areas not covered by ice sheets. A wall of ice 2,000+ reached down to about Olympia in Washington state, but south of that the climate was temperate.

The Gulf Stream & its deep salt water return current may indeed shut down, but its not the trigger. The geologic record show ice ages occur in 11,000 year cycles or so, in lockstep with Sun cycles. We are, by most indications entering an ice age now. It's not us (human) warming things up & it's not the atmosphere that's warming. It's the oceans that are warming up & it's from underwater volcanoes. More ocean heat means more atmospheric water vapor & this is what is driving these "unusual" storms.

Every 1" of rain is about 10" of snow & this year we had storms in US in which 5 or more inches of rain fell in a few hours. Convert that to snow & add a 3 day storm & you have 150" of snow. No one's diggin out of that. :)

[alxian]

if thats the case we canadians wouldn't notice, its been so bitterly cold here in the east that a few degrees wouldn't matter and the extra cloud cover (from the 150" of snow) might actually help retain some of the ambient warth from escaping in the wind.

 

bring it on. can go tubing or tobogganning for the first time in years.

[Turtle]

Actually, Canada will be just a sheet of ice. You will have to migrate or die. Assume the 150" 3 day snow storm I posited; that's 12 feet plus & it's going to crush buildings, bury roads & infrastructure, & create a disaster unprecedented. Further assume, that the few degrees of lowering temperature prevent this snow/ice pack from completely melting in the Spring/Summer. This is exactly what the geologic record (ice cores) show has happened in previous ice ages. Moreover, all that water is coming from the ocean & during the last ice age, 10-12 thousand years ago, the sea levels were lower by about 300+ feet.

Folks saying "global warming" are saying raising sea levels will result; if you do some research though (NOAA for example) you see sea levels actuall y have dropped in the last decade.

Snow cone anyone? :cup:

[Turtle]

___In spite of my earlier comments, eg. new glacier in St. Helens crater, the glaciers on Hood & North Sister are indeed receding, & the rate is increasing. This I just heard on a local news report & they pointed out a impact/hazard we haven't mentioned in regard to glacier melt. The summer meltwater is an important source of water for agricultural irrigation & if the glaciers disappear entirely it could be serious trouble indeed.

[Fishteacher73]

One problem (Especially for environmental science) is that you have many groups talking about many of the problems. Some of these groups are funded and backed by many of the larger chemical/petrolium companies that really prefer to keep the status quo. If you phrase the question right and pick the appropriate test sites, you can get the results you are hoping for. Many times we also forget that the Earth is a very large place and events in one area may be contradictory to events in another.

 

Environmental science is probably the second most debated area in science (Pulling in many that are not science buffs) after evolution. The problem unfortunatly is that the debate on evolution really has no bearing on much aside from what goes in the textbook (From a laymans POV). Environmental science has a huge impact on many peoples day-to-day lives. Everything from jobs and economy to carcinogens and population growth.

 

Like many things in the modrn world, people do not always examine the information that they have been given and often follow ambiguous or misleading "studies" without too much understanding of what is actually going on. This is on both sides of the equation. One example was an add taken out in the Sierra Club magazine. It warned about the global diffusion of oxygen dihydride. Stating, "There are dectable amounts in every water source on the globe." As a kneejerk reaction there sprang up a few groups opposed to the use of oxygen dihyride. They were amazed to learn that they were arguing against water.