Earth continues to warm

The Science Advances has published the first results of a study of a group of climatologists from Yale University under the leadership of Mary-Louise Timmermans. Scientists have analyzed data on changes in water temperature in the Canadian Basin of the Arctic Ocean. In it, cold and relatively fresh layers are closer to the surface, while denser, saline and warmer water lies beneath them. Arctic winds bring the latter from the Pacific Ocean through the Chukchi Sea and the coast of Alaska. It has turned out that in the past 30 years the Chukchi water area is experiencing anomalous heating. As a result, the bottom layer of the basin has warmed twice, and its thickness increased by almost a meter. If heat reaches the surface, the glaciers that cover this region for most of the year will melt. As a consequence, the average level of the world ocean will increase. However, calculations allow for a more optimistic development of events. The ice cap will be preserved, but it will become much thinner. No global flood will happen, but this will still have a negative effect on the local ecosystems.

The scientists also note unusual phenomena associated with climate change at the opposite end of the Earth. From the Larsen Ice Shelf, an iceberg broke off last year. Its area is half of Jamaica, the mass is about a trillion tons! Such giants, as a rule, are characterized by low mobility. But during the last July and August the colossal ice block turned almost 90 degrees. Specialists are still inclined to explain it in two ways: either the iceberg lost contact with the bottom due to an abnormally rapid melting, or got into a strong sea current, which had never been seen in this region before.