Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Nanomedicine Summit 2008

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 3 January 2003:
Vol. 299. no. 5603, pp. 57 - 58
DOI: 10.1126/science.1079568
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Perspectives

GLACIOLOGY:
An Ice Sheet Remembers

Robert P. Ackert Jr.

Are we witnessing the early stages of the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet? In his Perspective, Ackert explains that to answer this question, we must study the behavior of the ice sheet not just in recent decades but over thousands of years. He highlights the report by Stone et al., who document slow but steady thinning of the ice sheet over the last ~9300 years, punctuated by more rapid thinning as the ice margin approaches. The record is consistent with earlier suggestions that the ice sheet is still responding to changes in climate and sea level that occurred thousands of years ago, making it difficult to predict its response to present climate warming.

The author is in the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA. E-mail: rackert{at}whoi.edu

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)