Global heat wave invades glaciers: the collapse of the Antarctic ice shelf, the Arctic Ice of 40 %

Jimu News reporter Zhang Yang

Recently, a high mountain glacier collapsed in a mountain glacier in the Alps in northern Italy, and 7 people have died, and others are injured and disappeared. Behind this tragedy is that Italy is suffering for a long time of high temperature heat waves.

Some experts said that high -temperature weather and winter snowfall below the average level may be one of the factors that trigger this incident, and climate change will make unstable factors such as high temperature and snowfall more common and frequently appear.

The big pit left after the avalanche (picture source: the Associated Press)

"Climate change is booming climate change to higher temperatures, saying," climate change is promoting higher temperatures, which may cause more ice and snow to melt. The change reacts. "

Except for the Alps in Italy, glaciers around the world are becoming smaller.

The Alps has become a heat wave and easy to hair.

The Malmorada glacier in this incident is located in the Dolomiti Mountains in the Alps. This is a series of steep and eye -catching peaks in northeastern Italy. The environment has changed due to global climate change.

According to the European climate modeling group Copernicus, from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century, the temperature of the Alps is twice the global average. Climate change location.

The Italian Government's National Research Commission said that the Malmorada glacier has been shrinking over the past few decades and may disappear within 25 to 30 years.

The big pit left after the avalanche (picture source: the Associated Press)

Before this avalanche, the temperature in the glacier area was about 10 degrees Celsius, and it usually did not reach the freezing point. Tobeis Borch, the University of Santa Andrews, Scotland has long studied glaciers for a long time. He said that long -term hot weather in high altitudes caused this special circumstances.

In addition to the heat, Italy's snowfall last winter was lower than normal. Borch introduced that glaciers need cold weather and snowfall to grow. When the amount of snowfall is small, the ice will be exposed, and the impurities will gather on the surface of the glacier to deepen the surface color, which absorbs more calories and extra calories. The ice and snow melt faster, and the ice will break and cause the avalanche.

Robbata Prarano, who studied climate change in the Italian National Research Commission, said that as far as the avalanche is concerned, the melting of ice and snow caused by temperature changes is the culprit. He said: "Ice and snow are very sensitive to changes in temperature, so we expect that the frequency and intensity of such events will increase in the future."

Mount Everest also began to melt

In the world -renowned ice and snow world, the Himalayas are also often patronized by people. Due to the warming of the climate, the world's highest peak in Mount Everest has begun to melt.

According to the BBC report on June 17, due to the melting of glaciers due to climate warming, the Nepalese authorities are preparing to reduce its height at Mount Everest. Since 2024, they will evacuate the hillside camps currently at 5364 meters above sea level to lower places, and are expected to be 200 meters lower to 400 meters lower than they are now.

Because of global warming, glaciers in the region are rapidly melting. Researchers Scott Watson said that although most glaciers are covered by rocks, naked ice cubes are still exposed, and such places are called ice cliffs. Scott said: "When the ice cliff melts, the rocks on the top of the ice cliff will fall. Recently, we see that the frequency of rock falls on the surface of the glacier and the melting speed of ice and snow are increasing, which may cause danger to climbers."

Lake that appeared next to the base camp a year ago (picture source: BBC)

Due to the warming of the climate and melting ice and snow, a small lake was formed next to the Nepal base camp.

In addition, the frequency of cracks in glaciers is also becoming faster. "When we got up in the morning when we got up in the morning when we got up in the morning when we woke up in the morning when we got up in the morning, this was a scared thing."

The Himalayas are the third largest glaciers in the world. Ice reserves are second only to Antarctica and the Arctic regions, so they are often called "third poles".

"Our research results clearly show that the results of our research clearly show that the results of the ice layer of the Himalayan glaciers are at least ten times higher than the average speed of the past centuries."

The ice shelf collapses in Antarctica

Around March 15 this year, the Kangle Ice Shelf, located in the eastern part of Antarctica, collapsed, and its area was equivalent to one New York, including the Guardian and Associated Press and other media.

Public information shows that ice shelf refers to the part of the ice body, or the ice body connected to the continental frame to the part of the ocean. The ice shelf is large and small, and the large ice shelf can reach tens of thousands of square kilometers. The two -pole area is the most concentrated area of ​​ice shelf, and the collapsed ice shelf has become an iceberg.

It is reported that the area of ​​Kangge Ice shelf is about 1,200 square kilometers, which is similar to the area of ​​New York, the largest city in the United States. The areas where the Cuming Bingju is located has long been regarded as a "relatively stable" area, and it is less affected by climate change.

However, in a short period of time before and after the collapse of the ice shelf, the highest temperature recorded by Kanghong Station in Antarctic Ice Dome in the east of Antarctica reached minus 11.8 degrees Celsius, which was 40 degrees Celsius higher than the annual average temperature. Satellite images provided by the US Aerospace (Picture Source: Associated Press)

Dr. Catherine Walker, a scientist at the American Aerospace Administration and Woods Hall Marine Institute, pointed out that the collapse of the Cuming ice shelf was the first time in the cold area collapse in cold areas.

Dr. Walker believes that despite the relatively small Curge ice shelf, its collapse may not immediately have a huge impact, but this is likely to be a "preview", implying that "what may happen later."

Matt Kim, the person in charge of the Australian Antarctic Antarctic Excellence Center, said that fortunately, the glaciers behind the Cuming ice shelf are smaller, so the impact on the sea level is also small ", but as" the climate warms, the future may be in the future, it may be possible There are more ice shelf collapsed. If it is a very large ice shelf, it is enough to push the global sea level, and the consequences will be extremely serious. "

During the 40 years, the Arctic Sea Ice melted 40 %

On July 3, 2021, the BBC reported that as global warming intensified, the Arctic Sea Ice has continued to melt. Since 1979, the coverage of Arctic sea ice has been reduced by 40%.

The Arctic Sea Ice refers to the saltwater ice frozen from the Arctic region, and also includes the continental glaciers, icebergs and Iceland that enters the ocean. The Arctic Sea Ice plays an important role in controlling the temperature of the earth. It is like a "natural thermostat", which has always received close attention.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration released the Arctic Sea Ice range measured on September 15, 2020, the lowest value of the year (picture source: CNN)

Data released by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency show that the Arctic sea ice is shrinking at a rate of 13.1 % every 10 years. In July and October 2020, the coverage area of ​​the Arctic sea ice was only more than 3.7 million square kilometers, setting a new low since the 1979 observation record. At this speed, the Arctic sea ice may disappear completely in 2035.

The melting of the Arctic sea ice will have an impact on the main ocean flow of the region.

The "Poffte Ring flow" can collect fresh water from melted glaciers, rain and rivers to prevent sea ice from melting. Due to the melting of the sea ice and the increase in freshwater content, if the "Poffter Ring flow" releases the excess fresh water into the North Atlantic Ocean, the intensity of the circulation is likely to change. This will affect the climate of the entire Western Hemisphere, especially Western Europe, which will affect the global climate system.

In addition, the ablation of the Arctic sea ice will not only lead to rising global sea levels, but also make the polar bears in accordance with difficulties, and eventually be annoyed.

Polar Bear (Picture Source: CNN)

According to the BBC report, because the sea ice becomes thinner, the weight of the polar bear exceeds the bearing capacity of the ice, and they can only swim to the seal to the seal farther than before. This will not only cause the polar bears for foraging, but also force them to step into the human residential area to seek food.

As early as 2007, CCTV News reported that scientists predict that by 2050, 2/3 of the world's polar bears will die because the Arctic sea ice they lives in survival will gradually be influenced by global warming.

And the Arctic ecological environment is fragile, and once it is destroyed, recovery is extremely difficult. The demise of polar bears in the food chain is likely to cause great changes in the entire Arctic ecosystem.

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