EARTH SCIENCE: ClimateChange //

PHYSICS: Transfer of Energy

01913:
Boulder Glacier
- dominated this
part of Glacier
National Park
in Montana.

ntil a few years ago, the Mountain glaciers often flow down
Chacaltaya glacier in the Bolivian through valleys, like slow-motion rivers of
WATCH Andes bustled with activity each ice. Other glaciers, known as ice sheets,
A VIDEO winter. One of South America's cover huge expanses of land and gradually
www.scholastic.com
/scienceworld most popular ski resorts had flow outward in all directions. Ice sheets
operated there since 1939.At 5,260meters cover most of Greenland and Antarctica.
4 BONUS (17,250feet), it was the higheseelevation ski Pieces of glaciers that break off into the
run in the world. ocean are called icebergs.
SHEETS Today, Chacaltaya is eerily quiet. The Glaciers grow or shrink depending on
www.scholastic.com 18,000-year-oldglacier, which had been how much new snow falls on them and how
/scienceworld
melting for decades, disappeared in 2009. much melts away in the summer. "They're
nature's thermometers," says Jason Box,
ICE GIANTS a glaciologist at the Geological Survey of
Glaciers are giant masses of ice that form Denmark and Greenland.
on land when winter snow survives through As the average temperature of Earth's
the summer months. More snow falls on top atmosphere rises because of climate change,
the following year, and the weight of the new Box and other scientists are studying how
snow compresses the older layers into ice, glaciers are responding. About 95 percent of
which can slowly accumulate year after year. the 300,000or so glaciers around the world
14 DECEMBERg, 2013
 02012:
Boulder Glacier
has been
reduced to a few
patches of snow.

Drip by drip,
glaciers that
hog most of the
world's fresh water
are shrinking. Many,like Chacaltaya,will developed by the United
•anish; others will remain, but just barely. States Geological
The loss of glaciers is having profound Survey in 2003
predicted that the
Is there still time
effects on people, and not just skiers: Glacial
ice accounts for about 70 percent of the park's glaciers would
be gone by 2030,but
to save them?
planet's fresh water. When glaciers melt, the
water they once held ends up in the ocean, scientists now believe
causing sea levels to rise. That leaves coastal most of the ice may melt even sooner—
communities more susceptible to flooding. perhaps by 2020.
Also, the meltwater that flows down from The quickening pace of the glaciers'
glaciers in summer provides drinking water, disappearance from the park is part of a
irrigates crops, and powers hydroelectric larger pattern. "Every day, it seems, we learn
plants. With glaciers in decline, many parts that the ice is more sensitive than we thought
of the world are facing water shortages. it was yesterday," says Box. "It reacts to
changes faster than we thought it would."
VANISHING ACT One key factor that affects how fast
Glacier National Park in Montana glacial ice melts is its albedo—a measure of
(wictured above) once boasted more than how much light enerkYit reflects. Darker
150 glaciers. Only 25 remain today. Models surfaces like sand, vegetation, or liquid
WWW.SCHOLASTIC.COM/SCIENCEWORLD
15
 Reflective blankets
protect Switzerland's
Rhone Glacier, a
tourist destination.
summer melt.

water absorb heat easily But white snow smaller, they reflect less süft}ight.
and ice have a high albedo. They reflect rneans Earth's surface
sunlight and help to keep the pi?liet cool. energy anci becomes w;vir-ivmakes
But as a glacier melts, $.healbedo the [he +.n•ä
ice In other
area changes. ice Lecomes thinne-
and patches of snow ane ice become. roots

Arctic
Canada
north
(Norwsy;
Greenland Arctic
(Denmark)
Scend.:neeie
Iceland NorthAsia
Arctic
Alaska(U.s.)- Canada
50 billion south Caucasusand
metric tons WesternCanada Central MiddleEast
and UnitedStates Europe

Hime layas

ICE LOSS
The size of each red
dot on the map shows the Low latitudes
(Peru)
mass of ice that has melted
from the region's glaciers
each year since 2003. For
SouthernAndes
scale, Alaska's dot repre- (Chileand Argentina)
sents 50 billion metric tons
of ice—enough water to fill
Lake Champlain twice!
Antarcticand sub-Antarctic

16 DECEMBER g, 2013
 "Changing albedo amplifies climate
change,"
says
Box. CHARTING THE MELT
Box than 100
is leading a study in Greenland to This graph shows how the average thickness of more
measure how particles that land on the
major glaciers around the world has changed since 1980.
surface of a glacier—like dust, pollen, and
dark soot from wildfires or industrial pollu- o

tion—affect its albedo. These particles cause -2

ice to absorb more light and melt faster, but z -4
no one knows how much faster.
Box and his colleagues recently shipped -6
ice samples to NASA'sJet Propulsion
Laboratory in California, where researchers
will analyze their light-absorption properties. z -10
o
Scientists hope the results will help them
-12
make more accurate predictions about how z
quickly glaciers may melt and how much the -14
planet may warm.
-16
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
SLOWING THE MELT YEAR
In some parts of the world, ski-resort
ov,-ners are trying a creative strategy to
reduce the amount of snow and ice lost trap heat, in t.he atmosphere, and soot, which
during the summer melt—and to avoid absorbs heat and reduces albedo when it
the fate of Chaealtaym In late spring, they lands on snow. Chacaltaya is gone for good,
but there's still time to save many other
CORE
cover parts o! their glaciers in reflective
to fucrease albedo and minimize giacicrs loyac.ioptingclean energy sources QUESTION
the of heat the ice absorbs. Glaciens like solar power. What are three
in Italy, France, Germany, and and the power to benefitsthat
Atst.r:a have received the blanket treatment. (ifr.plov says Box, "and glaciers provide
Resean „r.€:rs have found that it can reduce to tuake a big diffet% to people?
melting by 50 CoSOpercent. . . —-JenniferBarone
Box Vestedthe blanket
approach in Greenland. "It
can be valuable in targeted
places where you really want
to keep the ice," he says, such
as on glaciers that provide
critical water resources or at
ski areas whose economies
depend on glaciers. But at
a cost of millions of dollars
per square mile, "it just isn't
feasible at large scales," says
Box. "It becomes ridiculously
expensive. "
Instead, Box says, the best
bet for protecting the world's KELP COOL:
glaciers—and the fresh water Workers place a
they supply—is to slow the reflective blanket
over a glacier at a
warming of the planet. That German ski resort
means reducing emissions to shield it from
heat and sunlight.
of greenhouse gases, which
STIC.COM/SCIE EWORLD, 17
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