Mysterious Zones of The Arctic - 5

Fig. 1 Temperature Records

I recently read a paper that carefully used existing in situ data measurements at several weather stations in Southwest Greenland to extend the historical records of air temperatures in that area all the way back to 1784 (Vinther et al., 2006, PDF).

The graph at Fig. 1 shows the mean average temperature record for the areas near the fastest receding glacier in the Cryosphere (Jacobshavn near Nuuk and Ilulissat).

Today I want to continue the discussion of the Arctic region in terms of the Industrial Revolution having terminated a cooling trend.

Fig. 2 Abrupt Weather Change

The graph at Fig. 2 is the same as the graph at Fig. 1 except that I drew two red lines to illustrate the abrupt change in the weather in SW Greenland in the late 18th century.

That abrupt change melted all the fresh ice buildup that took place during the cooling epoch (Little Ice Age?) shown by the downward trending red line from circa 1784 to circa 1840.

A Little Ice Age clue from Glacier Bay:

"Ice has been a major force in the Glacier Bay region for at least the last seven million years. The glaciers seen here today are remnants of a general ice advance – the Little Ice Age – that began about 4,000 years ago. The Little Ice Age reached its maximum extent here about 1750, when general melting began."

(Glacier Bay Park). Yet another note about the time of the end of the little ice age and beginning of the industrial revolution.

The Greenland weather station records don't tell us how long the cooling period had been going on prior to the abrupt change.

But it would have been increasing the Greenland Ice Sheet's mass for all that span of time.

Fig. 3 Coast Guard Iceberg Sightings

The big picture is that all that new ice caused by the cold spell melted abruptly, in geological terms.

The change of events was caused by the rapid increase in the use of coal and other fossil fuels in the hurried early days of the Industrial Revolution.

Those events impacted the new ice and sent ice bergs floating all the way down along the coast of Florida and around Bermuda according to U.S. Coast Guard records (Fig. 3).

Fig. 4 2014-2018 added

The graph at Fig. 4 includes the years 2014-2018 from PROMICE (NUK & QAS only) which were not included in the Vinther et al. paper.

After that "low hanging fruit" was plucked, things leveled off somewhat but the oceans began to warm up.

Most melt now is caused by a warming ocean which is engendering abrupt changes to tidewater glaciers (The Ghost Plumes - 8).

A person's country of origin, residency, or citizenship is not a factor in terms of what countries are being impacted (Countries With Sea Level Change - 2).

The previous post in this series is here.