Glacier sets new land speed record.

[Darren]

"Jakobshavn Isbræ, one of Greenland’s largest glaciers. By analyzing satellite images taken every 11 days from early 2009 through spring of 2013, researchers found that the ice stream’s average speed in the summer of 2012 peaked at a whopping 46 meters (half the length of a football field) per day, the researchers report today in The Cryosphere.

That's about 150' per day.

[Shine]

"...in 2012" ? - wonder what it's pace is today?

[Forerunner]

This winter ?

I wouldn't exactly want to sneak up on it, slap it on the *** and then try to get away !!

[Darren]

I wouldn't worry about the glacier. On the other hand I wouldn't try that with a large carnivore.

[Forerunner]

How fast-moving would a glacier have to be (pursuing warmbloods/global warming fanatics, etc.) before it's considered carnivorous ?

I'm seeing a vague format for a political cartoon.

[Darren]

There's no doubt the next ice age is going to put a crimp in civilization. Northern cities will be ground to a pulp. At least that will take care of the rising sea level people are panicking over.

[Fennick]

That glacier is not advancing. The report says it is receding.

Melting at a rate of 150 feet a day - that's alarming considering it's Greenland's largest glacier. I wonder how fast Greenland's other glaciers are receding.

[Darren]

Originally Posted by Fennick

That glacier is not advancing. The report says it is receding.

Melting at a rate of 150 feet a day - that's alarming considering it's Greenland's largest glacier. I wonder how fast Greenland's other glaciers are receding.

Read it again. The glacier doesn't dump ice in the ocean by slowing down. More ice has to be transported meaning it's moving faster towards the ocean. If it was melting it would recede from the ocean meaning less ice would enter the ocean.

"Although Jakobshavn Isbræ’s summer surges are short-lived, the glacier’s average annual speed for the last couple of years is almost three times that measured in the 1990s. Between 2005 and 2010, Greenland’s glaciers dumped enough ice into the sea to raise sea level an average of about 0.7 millimeters per year, with Jakobshavn Isbræ contributing about one-seventh of that total. While for now the speediest, Jakobshavn Isbræ isn’t alone: Previous studies have shown that Greenland’s 200 largest glaciers have sped up, on average, about 30% in the last decade."

[Fennick]

Originally Posted by Darren

Read it again. The glacier doesn't dump ice in the ocean by slowing down. More ice has to be transported meaning it's moving faster towards the ocean. If it was melting it would recede from the ocean meaning less ice would enter the ocean.

You need to read it again. The report says the glacier is retreating. Of course its flow speed is speeding up as it is rotting and breaking up as it melts. That is what retreating glaciers do.

Abstract. We have extended the record of flow speed on Jakobshavn Isbræ through the summer of 2013. These new data reveal large seasonal speedups, 30 to 50% greater than previous summers. At a point a few kilometres inland from the terminus, the mean annual speed for 2012 is nearly three times as great as that in the mid-1990s, while the peak summer speeds are more than a factor of four greater. These speeds were achieved as the glacier terminus appears to have retreated to the bottom of an over-deepened basin with a depth of ~ 1300 m below sea level. The terminus is likely to reach the deepest section of the trough within a few decades, after which it could rapidly retreat to the shallower regions ~ 50 km farther upstream, potentially by the end of this century.

[Fennick]

Perhaps this will help you to understand better what is meant about "increase of the ice flow rate" and destabilization of the glacier as it is retreating. The glacier in question in your original post (Jakobshavn Isbræ) is one of the largest glaciers in Greenland, it is the fastest retreating glacier in Greenland and due to that retreat it has been the fastest moving glacier in the world over the past half century. The report you posted is talking about how the rate of retreat and increase of ice flow rate has speeded up even more in the past couple of years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retreat...1850#Greenland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakobshavn_Glacier

[bluetogreens]

And yet, it is still faster than the US government.

[sand flea]

Well, nature likes a balance. I hear antarctica's ice mass is building.

[JillyG]

This kinda says it all.
http://www.newscientist.com/embedded...-antarctic-ice