The Discovery Of Tree Trunks Under Glaciers 600 Meters Atop Today’s Treeline Date To The Last ICE AGE. By Kenneth Richard on 24. December 2018 Image Source: Ganyushkin et al., 2018 Between 60 and 40 thousand years ago, during the middle of the last glacial, atmospheric CO2 levels hovered around 200 ppm – half of today’s concentration. Tree remains dated to this period have been discovered 600-700 meters atop the modern treeline in the Russian Altai mountains.
This suggests surface air temperatures were between 2°C and 3°C warmer than today during this glacial period. Tree trunks dating to the Early Holocene (between 10.6 and 6.2 thousand years ago) have been found about 350 meters higher than the modern treeline edge. This suggests summer temperatures were between 2°C and 2.5°C warmer than today during the Early Holocene, when CO2 concentrations ranged between about 250 and 270 ppm. None of this paleoclimate treeline or temperature evidence correlates with a CO2-driven climate. Ganyushkin et al., 2018 Full Paper. Scientists find missing piece in glacier melt predictions. Stanford scientists have revealed the presence of water stored within a glacier in Greenland, where the rapidly changing ice sheet is a major contributor to the sea-level rise North America will experience in the next 100 years. This observation – which came out of a new way of looking at existing data – has been a missing component for models aiming to predict how melting glaciers will impact the planet.
The group made the discovery looking at data intended to reveal the changing shape of Store Glacier in West Greenland. But graduate student Alexander Kendrick figured out that the same data could measure something much more difficult to observe: its capacity to store water. The resulting study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, presents evidence of glacier meltwater from the surface being stored within damaged, solid ice. "All of our predictions of sea-level rise are missing this meltwater component," Schroeder said.
A different perspective More information: Yasmina M. Alpine Glaciers Shrank Thousands Of Feet During NASA’s Coldest Years On Record.