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Shea Gunther

New land rises as glaciers melt

Parts of Alaska are rising over 3 inches a year due to relieved pressure caused by melting glaciers. Ecosystems are changing quickly as new land is created.

Tue, May 19 2009 at 8:07 AM EST
 3

Photo: MostlyBurds/Flickr
The area around Juneau, Alaska, is experiencing a unique side effect of global warming- the sea is retreating from large areas of coastline.

Melting glaciers served as a giant paperweight on the spongy ground, as those glaciers melt, the pressure they exerted down is relieved and the land rises back up like a mattress after someone gets out of bed.

On the surface, this sounds like a good thing -- new land is created and the rising seas are pushed back, sometimes miles across the newly minted acres. But with the new land brings new problems: water flows are disrupted and swamps and wetlands are drying out. Rivers and waterways are being filled with silt from the increased meltwater, disrupting fish runs and shipping routes. 

Some scientists predict the rise in land could be as much as three feet a year by 2100.

Global warming is here; it's real, and as we're sure to see more and more, is happening in some places in very quick order indeed.

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Related Topics: Global Warming, Sea Level Rise

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anonymous
SwampFox-82nd 06/03/2009 22:28 PM

You seem to think you are acting on our behalf, but you are not. Act now to save our planet or get out of the way. Your behavior brings the foul smell of deceit and arrogance to our nation and to this world. lead as you have sworn to do, or get your *** out of the way. Let an adult act as our leader.

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anonymous
Jeff R. 05/19/2009 13:31 PM

If land is rising because the glaciers melted and became seawater, I think the sea level will rise significantly more than estimated in the latest assessment that corrected “overestimated” values. What bad luck! Now they will have to redo all the models to take in consideration the possibility that in the extreme north and south a significant land area will rise, and contribute in this unforeseen way to sink the stable areas. I will not buy property in Florida.

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anonymous
Kringle 05/19/2009 10:15 AM

Seems more like ecosystems are shifting. I think we shall still see the same sorts of ecosystems that we've already identified...but they are migrating, due to changes in the Earth cyclical patterns.

We have had a great deal of water here, but the green life seems to be loving it!

Seems like we can build very convincing ecosystems to maintain specie within their environments, eventually seeding them in similar, newly-formed natural environments...

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