University of Alaska Fairbanks' (UAF) Geophysical Institute researchers, Anthony Arendt and Regine Hock, stated in a new study that Alaska's melting glaciers are major contributors to rising sea levels.
Rising sea levels are a major cause of concern for environmentalists. According to a new study conducted by UAF Geophysical Institute researchers, Anthony Arendt and Regine Hock with 14 other scientists from 10 countries, melting glaciers of Alaska are major contributors to the rise in sea levels.
The researchers combined data from field measurements and satellites to get an overall, up to date global picture of glacier mass losses and their contribution to rising sea levels. Arendt says that this study could help them understand the cause of the current rising sea levels.
Alex Gardner, main author on the study and an assistant professor at Clark University in Massachusetts, said the data mostly consisted of findings between 2003 and 2009. During this period, Alaska's melting glaciers reportedly added as much water to the seas as the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. He also said that the water from these mountain glaciers accounts for nearly a third of the rising sea levels.
The study was conducted in order to provide new estimates to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Arendt and Hock helped the study by compiling a globally complete inventory of the Earth's glaciers, but focusing mainly on Alaska's glaciers.
"Alaska has a considerable amount of glacier ice, much of which is located near the coast, making it particularly susceptible to climate fluctuations," Arendt said in the university's news release.
"More field data is needed to supplement satellite observations, so that we can better understand how glaciers in Alaska will respond to future climate variations," Hock explained.
The findings were published last week in Science, a weekly journal of the American Association of the Advancement of Science.
