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UA climate research: Big stretch of US coast at risk of rising seas
If global temperatures continue to rise and polar ice continues to melt, 9 percent of the land in our coastal cities and towns will be beneath sea level by the end of the century, University of Arizona researchers say.
Climate researchers Jeremy Weiss and Jonathan Overpeck, along with Ben Strauss of Climate Central in Princeton, N.J., mapped the U.S. coastline, using elevations provided by the U.S. Geological Survey. They applied the most recent predictions of a sea level rise of 1 meter (3.28 feet) by 2100 to produce a map that predicts big trouble for 20 cities with more than 300,000 people and for 160 smaller municipalities.
Weiss is a senior researcher in geosciences. Overpeck is a professor of geosciences and atmospheric sciences and co-director of the UA’s Institute of the Environment.
The report was published last week in Climatic Change Letters.
The biggest impact will be felt in low-lying, heavily populated places such as New Orleans, Miami Beach and Virginia Beach, the report says.
Subsequent centuries will bring even higher sea levels that could completely submerge Read more…
King Crabs Invade Antarctic Waters
A warmer Antarctica makes a hospitable home for these crabs, endangering an entire ecosystem that has no defenses against them.
THE GIST
- Shell-crushing king crab are expanding their kingdoms into the Antarctic peninsula.
- Creatures living there for tens of millions of years have no defenses against these crustaceans.
- Warmer waters are facilitating the crabs’ advancement.
McMURDO STATION, Antarctica — Warming waters along the Antarctic peninsula have opened the door to shell-crushing king crabs that threaten a unique ecosystem on the seafloor, according to new research by a U.S.-Sweden team of marine researchers.
On a two-month voyage of the Swedish icebreaker Oden and U.S. research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer, marine biologists collected digital images of hundreds of crabs moving closer to the shallow coastal waters that have been protected from predators with pincers for more than 40 million years. They are the same kind of deep-water crabs with big red claws that you might find at the seafood counter.
“Along the western Antarctica peninsula we have found large populations over like 30 miles of transects. It was quite impressive,” said Sven Thatje, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Southampton in England and chief scientist on the cruise.
Finding crabs on the bottom of the ocean isn’t that big a deal. But here in Antarctica, Read more…
Mysterious Wood on Iceberg at Magnetic South Pole
By Anthony D Poerio • Jan 24th, 2011
(Via)scallywagandvagabond.com
Begin wildly conspiring: Australian ABC‘s Karen Barlow, who is traveling to Antarctica on the Aurora Australis to study glacial ice, has spotted this rectangular block of wood perched prominently atop an iceberg within the no compass region around the magnetic south pole.According to Barlow, “Wildlife watchers near Aurora Australis’ bridge first thought it was a relaxing seal but it was soon apparent it was rectangular in shape.” And, some say, startlingly similar to the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey...
Naturally, theories from serious to sarcastic have been bursting through the blogosphere.
Said one commenter, “It’s a door – and when you open it there’s a staircase, which leads to a secret passage way to the North Pole. I thought everyone knew about this!”
And another, claiming to be Adolf Hitler, “You vill ALL schtop lookink at ze exit hatch for our Untergroundt UFO-Schnaffenfatzer NOW!” Which was only a matter of time, because we all know it’s notoriously difficult not to slip into a German drawl anytime underground Antarctic bases are involved.
But whether it’s Elvis’s hideaway home or a piece of timber deposited by migrating swallows, one theme in these theories is common to nearly them all. As one commenter, going by the name ‘Peter’ noted “This is the end people.” Like always.
Your move, Julian Assange.
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