HR: 1340h
AN: C23A-1138 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Acceleration of Glacier Wastage in the Arctic and Increases Uncertainty in the Knowledge of Fresh Water Cycle During the warm Decade 1991-2000
AU: * Dyurgerov, M B
EM: dyurg@tintin.colorado.edu
AF: University of Colorado at Boulder, INSTAAR, 1560 30th Street, Campus Box 450, Boulder, CO 80309/0450 United States
AB: Since the end of the 1980s, circum-Arctic glaciers have shown increases in retreat rate, volume loss, and fresh water inputs to the Arctic and world oceans. The Greenland ice sheet (GRIS), subpolar ice caps and mountain glaciers (MG) in watersheds of arctic rivers constitute about 2.1 x 10mln km2 in area. Their melted ice volume would be equal to a rise in sea level (RSL) of about 7 m. The GRIS and MG combined appear to be the major contributor to RSL in the warm decade of 1991-2000, and in following years due to negative mass balance. New work reveals that all Arctic glaciers, including GRIS mass loss from the surface and ice discharge through the grounding line, have contributed to the Arctic Ocean up to 100 mm/yr in 1991-2000, and up to 3 mm/yr to the World Ocean with a huge inter-annual variability. It is found that increases in inter-annual variability of total mass loss of GRIS and MG has been the major sources of uncertainties in the knowledge of fresh water contribution to the Arctic Ocean, and uncertainty has increased as existing observations do not coincide with acceleration of glacier wastage.
DE: 0720 Glaciers
DE: 0726 Ice sheets
DE: 0762 Mass balance (1218, 1223)
DE: 1222 Ocean monitoring with geodetic techniques (1225, 1641, 3010, 4532, 4556, 4560, 6959)
DE: 1621 Cryospheric change (0776)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005