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The Whole Earth Course Chapter 9 Hydrosphere 2 The Cryosphere Instructor: Dr. George A. Maul gmaul@fit.edu / X 7453 http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen2/full22.html
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Outline of the Class Earth’s Cover of Ice and Snow Glaciers Glaciated Landscapes Sea Ice Periglacial Landscapes and Permafrost Summary
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What is the Cryosphere? Sea, lake, and river ice Glaciers Ice sheets Ice caps Ice shelves Frozen ground such as permafrost
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Last time we said that Earth’s Cryosphere is 43,400,000 km 3 In-class Calculation: How tall would a 1 km x 1 km tower of 4.3x10 7 km 3 stand? What is the distance to the sun? Volume = Height x Length x Width 4.3x10 7 ÷ 149.6x10 6 =
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HOW BIG IS THE CRYOSPHERE? Approximately 3% of all the water in the hydrosphere is contained in the Cryosphere. WHERE DO WE FIND THE CRYOSPHERE? Glaciers cover about 10% of land area. Permafrost is another 20% of land area. HOW MUCH IS SEA ICE? Two-thirds of Earth’s permanent ice cover; one-thousandth of Earth’s total ice volume.
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Past Glaciation Ice cover changes Earth’s Albedo (A) Who Cares?
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Average snow cover in the northern hemisphere (%) during December 1992, based on data received (left) from a microwave sensor aboard a satellite. Maximum 1979-1995 What is a microwave satellite sensor? Today’s ice and snow coverage
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MICROWAVE SENSORS Defense Meteorological Satellite Program – DMSP Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer - SMMR DMSPSMMR Image
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Climate Change: Arctic Sea Ice
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Motion of Arctic Sea Ice http://www.youtube.com/embed/hC3VTgIPoGU?rel=0
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Antarctic Ice “Facts matter” Stephen Breyer Associate Justice, US Supreme Court
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How would Earth’s temperature change if the ice coverage changed? Q GHE : What is the greenhouse effect? C SUN : What is the solar constant? A: What is Earth’s albedo? 4: Where does the ¼ come from?
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Stefan-Boltzmann Law Units? Circa 1879 Plank’s Law IλIλ λ
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What is Q GHE ?
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IN CLASS CALCULATION: C SUN : What is the solar constant? where If T SUN = 5775 K, C SUN = ? r sun = 696,000 km r Earth-SUN =149,600,000 km
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Albedo: Today’s value A=30%
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Why the ¼ in our equation? Energy in: π r 2 Energy out: 4 π r 2 By-the-way: Q is a flux, i.e. amount per unit area per unit time Units?
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IN CLASS CALCULATION: How would Earth’s temperature change if the albedo changed from 30% to 29%? minus If T EARTH(A=30%) = 288K, T EARTH(A=29%) = ?
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Contorted medial moraines of Susitna Glacier in Alaska. Glaciers
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Where do we find glaciers?
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28m How thick can glaciers be? How thick is 3000 m? What is the height of the Crawford Building?
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Main features of a valley glacier.
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An expanded view of the effects of glacial ice on the geosphere.
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Ice movement over meltwater has less friction than over frozen surfaces. What is the pressure (p) at the base of a 10,000 m thick glacier? p = ρ∙g∙h
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IN CLASS CALCULATION: What is the pressure (p) at the base of a 10,000 m thick glacier? What are the units? What is the pressure melting point at the base of the glacier? So the ice melts at -8°C
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Changes in a Glacier
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Evolution of glacial carved landforms
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Effects of glaciers on Earth’s surface are significant. Can you contrast the effects of streamflow and glaciers on sediment transport? Hint: Which one sorts sediments during transport?
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Major glacial landforms in USA
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Periglacial Landforms, Permafrost, Tundra Tundra Extent Tundra Periglacial Landform Permafrost
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Feedback Which is positive feedback and which is negative feedback? http://www.atmosedu.com/Geol390/feedbacks.htmwww.atmosedu.com/Geol390/feedbacks.htm
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Why do icebergs float? Who was Archimedes? Sea Ice
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IN CLASS CALCULATION: How high does an iceberg float? We’ll need the hydrostatic equation again p = ρ∙g∙h p – pressure, ρ – density, g – gravity, h – height ρ seawater =1025 kg·m -3 ρ ice =917 kg·m -3 (ρgh) water = (ρgh) ice so h ice = ?
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What maritime disaster precipitated the formation of the International Ice Patrol?
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Blowing up Icebergs?!?!
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Pancake Ice – discovery of the Ekman Spiral.
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Seasonal extent of sea ice in A. Southern hemisphere, and B. Northern hemisphere.
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Florida Tech Student deploying FIT-built ROV under Arctic Ice What is an ROV?
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How much frozen water is in sea ice? Sea ice is 0.1% of the total volume of ice on Earth. How much of Earth is covered with sea ice? 2/3 of Earth’s permanent ice cover is sea ice. This is approximately 5-6% of the surface area of Earth. Of what significance is sea ice in the Earth System? What happens if it all melts? What happens if more forms? Who cares?
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Please note the size of the sheets of ice breaking off!! Approximately 1000 km 3 of glacial ice enters the sea each year as icebergs. (Can you put this number in perspective?) How wide is Florida?
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http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/l earning/player/lesson12/l12la1.html Towing Icebergs Step 2: curtain icebergStep 1: circle icebergStep 3: tow iceberg
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How much heat to melt sea ice? What about the Cryosphere? Sea ice is 0.1% of Cryosphere or 0.0434 x 10 6 km 3 or 39.4 x 10 18 g of ice. For ice at 0 0 C to water at 0 0 C 330J/g or 79 cal/g is required. Total heat required to melt sea ice is 1.3 x 10 22 J, or for the whole Cryosphere is 1.3 x 10 25 J. For perspective, world energy consumption is approximately 4 x 10 20 J/year One PB&J sandwich is about 1 million Joules!!
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Transect along western Atlantic Ocean showing water masses and general circulation processes. What happens if sea ice melts here? What happens if sea ice forms here?
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Post Script: Greenland Sea Deep Water Warming http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130925102833.htm
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Summary Cover of Ice, Snow, and Permafrost is 30% Glaciers: temperate and polar Glacier mass = accumulation - ablation Glaciated Landscapes: Plow, File, and Sled Sea Ice: >60% of area, 0.1% of volume Permafrost covers >20% of land surface
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Next Time Chapter 10 – the oceans 70.8% of the Whole Earth’s Surface
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