Greenland is melting too fast!

Watch this amazing video of the centre of global warming Greenland (2009)It's scary but very real and worrying, no doubt!

Greenland’s surface ice melt season reached a peak in late July, coinciding with a period of very warm weather. Greenland’s melt season this year will be closer to average than was 2012, with far less melting in the northern ice sheet and at high elevations. Nevertheless, an all-time record high temperature for Greenland may have been set in 2013.Surface melt on the Greenland ice sheet spread to the northern coastal regions and became especially frequent in the far northeastern corner of the island (Kronprins Christians Land). However, while some high-melt-extent years recently have seen elevations above 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) warm to the melting point, this rarely occurred in 2013, nor was there extensive melt in the northern interior portion of the ice sheet. A small region of the northwestern ice sheet, the drainage areas of Peterman and Humbolt glaciers, saw some inland melting. (However, some of these dark red pixels are mixed land areas, including ice plus rock and permanently frozen ground.) Melt lakes were prevalent along the central western coast in 2013 (as is typical of most seasons) but far less extensive in the northeastern and northwestern regions than in 2012. Melt lakes in Greenland may be seen in NASA Rapid Response-MODIS Arctic Subset images.

FromNational Snow and Ice data Center (Colorado-USA)http://nsidc.org/

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Huge canyon discovered under Greenland ice

One of the biggest canyons in the world has been found beneath the ice sheet that smothers most of Greenland.

Scientists are surprised the feature has not been worn away by successive glaciations

The canyon - which is 800km long and up to 800m deep - was carved out by a great river more than four million years ago, before the ice arrived.

It was discovered by accident as scientists researching climate change mapped Greenland’s bedrock by radar.

The British Antarctic Survey said it was remarkable to find so huge a geographical feature previously unseen.

The hidden valley is longer than the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It snakes its way from the centre of Greenland up to the northern coastline and before the ice sheet was formed it would have contained a river gushing into the Arctic Ocean. Now it is packed with ice.

The ice sheet, up to 3km (2 miles) thick, is now so heavy that it makes the island sag in the middle (central Greenland was previously about 500m above sea level, now it is 200m below sea level).

The canyon still runs “downhill”, though, and meltwater from the ice sheet seeps out below sea level at the northern end – at a relative trickle, rather than a torrent. Glaciologists think the canyon plays an important role in transporting sub-glacial meltwater produced at the bed towards the ocean.

Prof Jonathan Bamber describes how the Greenland canyon was discovered

The canyon was discovered by researchers working on one of the great scientific puzzles – how much will the Greenland ice sheet contribute to sea level rise if, as predicted, the Arctic continues to warm as greenhouse gases increase?

They sought the answer with myriad flights using radar to bounce signals back off the bedrock underneath. Ice is transparent to radio waves at certain frequencies.

Studying the data collected mainly by Nasa and researchers from the UK and Germany over decades, they were amazed to stumble across the canyon.

The lead author, Prof Jonathan Bamber of Bristol University said: "With satellite images instantly available on a mobile phone we could assume that the Earth has been fully mapped, but there's clearly a lot left to discover. We're incredibly excited about this - it really is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery to find something on this scale."

Prof David Vaughan from British Antarctic Survey (Bas) told BBC News: “The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets hide a lot. It’s pretty surprising to find this canyon. Greenland isn’t that big for a canyon of that size, and for it to survive in its pre-glacial form after successive glaciations is quite something.”

Prof Vaughan said the canyon would have been partly uncovered at the time of the last interglacial 100,000 years ago. “There’s likely be some sort of bacteria down there - whether it’s viable is a different matter,” he said.

The canyon has never been seen by humans, who didn't exist four million years ago. If the Greenland ice sheet melts completely it will raise global sea level by 7 metres and swamp many major cities, so hopefully this is one great geographical feature that won't become a tourist destination.

From BBC Sci/ Environment

Russia's Arctic: Mission to protect wildlife

Russia is planning huge oil and gas developments in the Arctic Ocean off its northern coast - drilling that could threaten pristine wildlife habitats.

The early retreat of ice makes life harder for the polar bear and walrus

Large-scale production could begin in the next two decades, if the price of oil rises high enough.

Preliminary exploration has already begun, including in the Laptev Sea.

But scientists say the region is home to important, thriving populations of walrus and polar bears, which could be put at risk.

Biologists on the 2013 Laptev Expedition this summer have been trying to establish if the walruses and polar bears there are a unique group, in need of special protection. BBC journalists went with them to investigate the issue.

We flew to Khatanga, one of the most northerly towns in Siberia, and there we boarded a small boat, the Taimyr.

From Khatanga it was a two-day, 500km (310-mile) journey almost due north.

Darts are used to collect vital samples from the walrus

Polar bears

After the first day it became clear we had entered the domain of the polar bear. First we saw a mother with two five-month-old cubs on Maliy Begichev Island.

Then we saw a big "haul-out" of walrus at Cape Tsvetkov - perhaps 400-600 there, resting on the beach. Towering above them on the last large lump of ice was a large polar bear.

But our destination was Maria Pronchishcheva Bay, half-way up the Taimyr Peninsula. It is the most northerly bit of land in the world still attached to a continent.

"The oil companies are coming here with exploration projects already, and there are ongoing seismic explorations," said Igor Chestin, chief executive of the environmental group WWF Russia.

"So before the real oil and gas projects develop in the area we need to know that there is sufficient knowledge of the conservation needs here, which would allow us to put in the necessary protection if this development ever happens."

From satellite photographs taken a week earlier, the scientists on the expedition knew there had also been a large walrus "haul-out" there previously. By the time we sailed into the bay the number had dropped to around 60. But it was still enough for the crucial scientific work of the expedition - collecting DNA from the Laptev walrus.

From BBC Environment

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Rare tiny turtles born at Sea Life Centre

So tiny!

Two tiny turtles, among the rarest species in the world, have appeared in a tank at a sea life centre - to the surprise of keepers!

Staff at Birmingham Sea Life Centre had no idea one of their Roti Island snake-necked turtles had laid eggs.

Curator Graham Burrows said he believed the mother had hidden her eggs in the sand at the bottom of her tank.

"The first we knew of it was when we came in one morning and found these two youngsters swimming around," he said.

The one-week-old turtles are now receiving special care and are being fed a diet of bloodworm and shrimp before they go on display to the public next week.

The species is one of the rarest in the world and the surprise appearance of the two turtles brings the total captive population to just 250 worldwide.

From CBBC newsround