Here’s a superb video from the Department of Education at the American Museum of Natural History, showing how NZ and US scientists are examining the precise timing of glacier advances and retreats in the Mackenzie country around Lake Pukaki using surface exposure dating. Like all good geologists they use big hammers and small explosives to shatter rocks in order to sample “cosmogenic” Be-10 — a beryllium isotope formed when cosmic rays hit quartz in newly exposed rocks. See here for more on recent surface exposure dating work in the Pukaki area. Hat tip to Climate Crocks for spotting the video.
3 thoughts on “Bad news but great pictures: dating NZ’s shrinking glaciers shows strong link between ice loss and CO2 increases”
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Bad news but nice video indeed!
Isn’t it amazing how sincere and normal these tools of the global Social!st super-state can seem? (/sarc)
Field geologists have cooler toys now than we had 30 years ago!
It’s sobering to consider how much of the world’s population is dependent on glacier-fed rivers, and how vulnerable those glaciers are to an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Yep, water is going to be that other shoe, dropping fast now….
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-09/asian-water-scarcity-risked-as-coal-fired-power-embraced