The
Climate Machine: Heat Reservoirs, Ice
The global aggregate of glacial ice and snowpack is referred
to as the cryosphere.
Did you know?
-
the Antarctic ice sheet is as expansive as the U.S with an
average depth of almost 2 km amounting to more than 20 million cubic kilometers
of ice,
-
the global sea level could rise by
80 m if the Antarctic ice sheet melted,
-
the energy stored in the ice cap (2.6 x 1025
J) is about the same energy content as the upper ocean in Figure
11.15. Moreover, the phase transition of melting the ice cap could
absorb a great deal of excess energy to mitigate climate changes
-
the transfer of energy to the ice is
small and the effects of the cryosphere are therefore relevant to climate
changes occurring over periods of 1000s of years.
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