Global warming typically takes the rap for melting glaciers, but in the case of the Himalayan mountain range’s dwindling ice, it could have a co-conspirator: soot. Today, at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting, scientists said that the black carbon spewed out as industrial pollution from the heavily populated areas nearby could be a much larger contributor to glacier melt than previously thought.
First, NASA’s William Lau says, atmospheric circulation leaves a layer of soot at the base of the Himalayas, and that soot then combines with dust and forms an opaque cloud that absorbs energy. As this layer heats up in the Himalayan foothills, it rises and enhances the seasonal northward flow of humid monsoon winds, forcing moisture and hot air up the slopes of the majestic mountain range. As these particles rise on the warm, overturning air masses, they produce more rain over northern India, which further warms the atmosphere and fuels this “heat pump” that draws even more warm air to the region [LiveScience].
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The glaciers that shine at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, could vanish entirely within 15 years, according to a somber new report. Says glaciologist Lonnie Thompson: “Of the ice cover present in 1912 … 85% has disappeared and 26% of that present in 2000 is now gone” [USA Today]. The mountaintop glaciers are both shrinking around the edges and growing thinner, Thompson’s team found. If the current rate of ice loss continues, the mountain could be ice free as early as 2022.
Thompson says his team has fresh evidence that global warming is to blame. As similar changes are occurring on other mountains in Africa, South America, and in the Himalayas, Thompson says that global climate change, not local weather effects, must be responsible for the receding ice. “The fact that so many glaciers throughout the tropics and subtropics are showing similar responses suggests an underlying common cause,” Thompson said [AP].
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Scientists once thought that the intensity of the movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates determined how high a mountain could soar. But new research shows that it’s actually the efficiency with which colder climates erode mountains that limits their height, according to a recent study published in Nature.
The force of the tectonic plates pushing upwards, along with the strength of the Earth’s crust underneath the mountain and the force of erosion, all factor into a mountain’s height. All of the world’s highest ranges have strong underlying crust, but until now it wasn’t clear whether the world’s tallest peaks were dominated by strong uplift or minimal erosion. Using satellite images… researchers mapped all the major mountain ranges between 60° north and 60° south, plotting their land surface area against elevation [New Scientist]. They used a computer model to explore the effects of glacial erosion on these mountain ranges, and also looked at how each range’s latitude compared with its average snowline, or the point at which no significant amount of ice or snow accumulates on a mountain.
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The ancient civilization known as the Incan empire, which at its peak reached a population of 8 million people spread throughout South America, may owe its success at least in part to a warming climate, according to a study in the journal Climate of the Past. A rise in temperatures would have melted glaciers and allowed crops to grow further into the Andes mountains, fostering agricultural growth.
The study found that between 1100 and 1533 AD, temperatures increased several degrees, making it possible for the Incas to use new mountain land for agriculture. It also expanded the swath of land the empire occupied which, at its peak, spanned from the middle of Chile to the border shared by Ecuador and Colombia. This climate information came from an analysis of deeply buried sediment samples in the region the Incans once occupied. The researchers examined pollen and seeds buried in layers of mud on the floor of Lake Marcacocha in the Cuzco region of the Peruvian Andes. Similar to the rings in the trunk of a tree, each layer of sediment represents a fixed period of time. In the case of Lake Marcacocha, the researchers were able to analyze a 1,200-year-old sediment record [Discovery News].
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In chunks of rock quarried from a Russian mountain range, physicists have found perfect “quasicrystals,” a type of material that researchers previously thought could only be created in a lab. Quasicrystals display ordered arrangements and symmetries but are not periodic—that is, they are not defined by a single unit cell (such as a cube) that simply repeats itself in three dimensions [Scientific American]. Instead, quasicrystals have two different geometric structures that alternate, and that are organized in ways which create complex patterns and symmetries. When such a pattern is laid out in two-dimensions, the resulting design is often called Penrose tiling.
Quasicrystals were first created in the lab in 1984, and physicist Paul Steinhardt, a coauthor of the current study, says the hunt for naturally occurring quasicrystals began about 10 years ago. “The latest issue surrounding quasicrystals has been could nature ever make them? … When we make them in the lab we try very hard to make perfect quasicrystals, but nature has no such goal” [Discovery News]. The researchers put out a call to mineralogists around the world, asking them to send in likely rock samples for testing.
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A radar survey conducted between 2004 and 2008 by Japanese, Chinese, and British scientists reveals how the ice on Antarctica grew, and what the land looks like beneath the ice. At the center of the continent, a nearly two-mile-thick slab of ice has clung to Antarctica’s rocky surface for 14 million years; this is the first time scientists have gotten a virtual glimpse beneath the sheet’s surface.
The topography beneath the ice is mountainous, with peaks and valleys like the European Alps, according the study published Nature. Scientists say that 34 million years ago, small glaciers expanded from the mountaintops and shifted to carve out the terrain. To collect the data, scientists drove huge trains of caterpillar tractors in tight lines over Dome A, a plateau of ice at the heart of Antarctica. The tractors carried radars that pinged down through the ice and sent back profiles of the frozen rock landscape below [New Scientist]. Scientists knew the velocity of the radar’s radio waves, so they calculated the depth of the ice by timing how long it took the waves to hit the rock and come back to the surface.
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Fierce dust storms this spring have stained Colorado’s snow-covered peaks with brown, red, and pink dust, and state officials point out that this isn’t just a change in scenery. The darker snow is absorbing more radiation from the sun and is therefore melting faster and sooner than it normally would, which is upsetting the careful water rationing that defines life in the American West. Twelve dust storms barreled into the southern Rockies from the deserts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico so far this year…. That, coupled with unseasonably warm temperatures, has sped up the runoff here, swelling rivers to near flood stage, threatening to make reservoirs overflow and fueling fears that there will not be enough water left for late-summer crops [Los Angeles Times].
In Colorado, melting snow accounts for about 80 percent of the water that flows through rivers and ends up in the state’s lakes and reservoirs. Colorado water engineer Scott Brinton explains that the early snowmelt could spell disaster for thousands of farmers and ranchers in the region who depend on slowly melting snow to provide water flows over the dry summer months…. “Those people who were relying on the mountain snowpack are going to have difficulty later in the year…. There’s not a whole lot we can do about it,” Brinton said. “We’re telling people, ‘You’ll be getting your water early this year, so use it while it lasts’” [Greenwire]. But scientists note that this may not be just a year of freak storms, it may be a harbinger of things to come.
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The American pika, a short-legged, hamster-sized fur ball that huddles in high mountain slopes [AP] and inhabits 10 Western states, may become the first species in the lower 48 states to be listed as endangered due to global warming. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide by May 1 whether or not the pika, whose populations are dwindling, should be studied in depth and included on the endangered species list.
Studies have shown that the little animals have already been forced to higher altitudes because of rising temperatures; one study in particular, from 2005, showed that pikas lived at 5,700 feet above sea level at one point, but now average higher than 8,000 feet. They are now running out of mountain and face possible extinction if average temperatures continue to push higher [The Guardian]. The pika is “feeling an exaggerated brunt of global warming. Unlike others, it can’t move north. It’s stuck” [AP], said Greg Loarie, an environmental lawyer.
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Antarctic researchers have succeeded in mapping a mountain range that is as tall and impressive as the Alps and yet invisible to the naked eye, since the entire range is hidden beneath miles of ice. The international expedition (which 80beats covered when it set off in October) used radar, gravity sensors, and other instruments mounted on airplanes to chart the contours of the mighty Gamburtsev mountains, but say the results mostly revealed new mysteries. For example, researchers expected to see a plateau formation, indicating that the peaks had been worn down over millennia. Instead, says researcher Robin Bell: “They are incredibly rough mountains — they look like alligators’ teeth” [Nature News].
“The surprising thing was that not only is this mountain range the size of the Alps, but it looks quite similar to the (European) Alps, with high peaks and valleys,” said Fausto Ferraccioli, a geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey…. He told Reuters that the mountains would probably have been ground down almost flat if the ice sheet had formed slowly. But the presence of jagged peaks might mean the ice formed quickly, burying a landscape under up to 4 km (2.5 miles) of ice [Reuters]. Researchers say that understanding the behavior of polar ice sheets is crucial to scientists trying to predict the impacts of global warming.
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Now that’s going above and beyond the call of duty: Four doctors braved the dangers of Everest and scaled the world’s tallest mountain in order to study their tolerance to low oxygen levels experienced near the peak of the 29,000-foot mountain. The doctors, who had spent several weeks acclimatizing to the thin atmosphere, had the lowest blood oxygen levels ever recorded in a healthy, non-hibernating mammal. “You sometimes see levels this low in people who are dying because they’ve had a cardiac arrest,” says team member Mike Grocott…. “We were able to talk, walk, take the blood gas and think clearly with these levels” [New Scientist].
The doctors couldn’t take blood samples on the summit because conditions were too severe, with high winds and temperatures of around -13 degrees Fahrenheit. But once they descended to about 27,500 feet the doctors removed their gloves, unzipped their down suits and drew blood from the femoral artery in the groin. The samples were then carried by Sherpas back down the mountain and analysed within two hours at a science lab set up at the team’s camp [BBC News] at about 21,000 feet. Although the climbers had used oxygen tanks during their ascent, they removed their masks twenty minutes before conducting the test to avoid skewing the readings. The findings, they say, may have implications for doctors who worry about the blood oxygen levels of critically ill patients.
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A new study has found that 1.3 percent of the ambitious climbers who test themselves on the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, will die before returning to base camp, a higher rate than that of other peaks. The host of hazards awaiting those who dare to climb the 29,000-foot (8,850 meter) Himalayan mountain include extreme cold, whipping winds, changing weather, treacherous climbs and avalanches. Oxygen content in the air is only a third of that at sea level [Reuters]. But the main cause of death isn’t avalanches, falls, or respiratory problems brought on by the thin atmosphere, researchers found–nor is it monster attacks. “Nobody was attacked by any Yeti or anything else” [Reuters], study coauthor Paul Firth helpfully added.
Instead, the most frequent cause of death is brain swelling brought on by the altitude, which is accompanied by confusion and lack of coordination. Study coauthor Kent Moore explains: “With the low barometric pressure and lack of oxygen, there tends to be a seepage of fluid out of the blood vessels. When this happens in the brain, it causes swelling. It tends to impair cognitive function. That’s probably what causes a lot of the deaths.” Climbers with this problem fall behind, become lethargic, and may become disoriented – none of which has anything to do with their level of physical fitness [Canwest News Service].
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An international team of bundled-up scientists will soon set off for Antarctica’s interior in a quest to learn about the continent’s most massive and mysterious mountain range; although the Gamburtsev mountains are as high and mighty as Europe’s Alps, even the tallest peak is buried beneath 2 miles of ice. Now, during the southern hemisphere’s summer, the researchers will investigate how the Gamburtsevs formed in a place where scientists say no mountains should be.
American researcher Robin Bell, who will be making the trek, explains that there are two “easy” ways to form mountains, and neither makes sense in Antarctica: “One is colliding continents, but after they collide they tend to erode; and the last collision was 500-million-plus years ago…. The other way is a hotspot, [with volcanoes punching through the crust] like in Hawaii; but there’s no good evidence for underneath the ice sheet being that hot. I like to say it’s rather like being an archaeologist and opening up a tomb in a pyramid and finding an astronaut sitting inside. It shouldn’t be there” [BBC News].
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Researchers have proposed a new theory for how oxygen production was kick-started billions of years ago, when only trace amounts of the gas existed in the Earth’s atmosphere. When continents collided they started a chain reaction, researchers say, that eventually produced a hospitable, oxygen-rich atmosphere. They argue that the tectonic collisions that created the Superia/Sclavia, Nuna, Rodinia, Gondwana and Pangaea supercontinents also formed supermountains, which eroded rapidly, washing vast amounts of nutrients into the oceans. This fuelled explosions of oxygen-producing algae and bacteria [New Scientist].
The Australian researchers say that each collision of tectonic plates caused a bump in oxygen levels, and that studies of modern mountain formation bear out their theory. Other scientists have already shown that the formation and erosion of the Himalayas led to increases in atmospheric oxygen, [study coauthor Charlotte] Allen notes. “Scale up the Himalaya to supercontinental proportions and you have a modern analogue for what we think happened seven major times in earth’s history” [ABC Science]. However, some experts have expressed skepticism regarding the new theory.
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As the world warms, plants are seeking higher ground. A new study that examined botanical surveys of European mountain ranges over the past century found that plants are slowly moving to higher elevations in order to stay within their ideal temperature zones. More than two thirds of the plants in six western European mountain ranges have climbed an average of [95 feet] in altitude each decade since 1905 [CBC].
The study, published in the journal Science [subscription required], is the first to bring the positive news that many mountain plants are able to adapt to the rapid changes brought by global warming. But there are troubling ramifications. The team also discovered that different types of plants are moving at different rates. “Long-lived plants like trees or shrubs did not show a significant shift, whereas short-lived species like herbs showed a strong upward shift in elevation,” [lead researcher Jonathan] Lenoir said. “This may imply profound changes in the composition and the structure of plant communities and on the animal species they interact with,” he added. “It may disrupt ecosystems” [National Geographic News].
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According to conventional wisdom, the towering Andes were formed slowly and gradually over 40 million years, as two tectonic plates gradually collided and buckled the earth’s surface. Now a new study is revising that theory, and proposing that the mountain chain burst upwards in a growth spurt between 10 and 6 million years ago, a mere blink of an eye in geological terms.
The new research doesn’t dispute that the mountain range was formed in the collision of two tectonic plates — the dense Nazca Plate that underlies the Pacific Ocean and the lighter South American plate. But it adds a twist, saying that at one point during the long crash the mountains were suddenly freed of a heavy load and shot upwards towards the heavens.
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