Icelandic glaciologist Helgi Bjornsson believes all Iceland’s melting glaciers will be gone within 150 to 200 years. This includes Europe’s largest glacier, Vatnajokull.
Bjornsson’s new book “Icelandic glaciers” (only available in Icelandic) says the melting of the glaciers will mean Iceland’s many glacial rivers cease to exist – and with them, many of the country’s hydroelectric power stations. He describes the coming changes as the biggest to occur in Iceland for 10,000 years.
The book explores the history and science behind Icelandic glaciers, as well as a look at their foreseeable end and the varied new landscape they will leave behind, RUV reports.
Dr. Bjornsson is a great scientist but what about the growing Drangajökull glacier.
Source: http://www.grapevine.is/News/ReadArticle/Drangajokull-Is-Growing
The gulf stream will drift northwards due to global warming and so reverse the ongoing growth of the Drangajokull glacier. Evidence shouldn’t stand in the way of a dramatic prediction!
Wow. Dr.Helgi Bjornsson is very optimistic! The last book that I was reading about global warming gave to Vatnajokull much less time.If the World doesn’t change quickly this development model in a more sustainable one……yeah,right, this will never happen….
So what, Balkanson? Would you say that one day of rain in Sahara means that a drought is finished? Or that one icelandic company making money means the economy is saved and problems are over? And, would you take the bet that Drangajökull will still grow in 10, 50 or 100 years?
And if you ask Bjornsson, he’ll probably tell you he doesn’t “believe” the glaciers will disappear – but rather that this is a computed forecast by computers unable to guess what trouble this will cause. What? You think “Computers make errors”? Just go and ask old people around how the winters used to be 50 years ago…
Can any icelandic reader of this book please tell me if Bjornsson writes about “subsidiency”? when such a mass melts (Vatnajökull has 3300 cubic km of ice, 3300 billion tons…), the Earth crust “rebounds” – which already had seismic consequences in other regions.
I found this page attempting to search for confirmation on what I was told by a tour guide last time I was in Iceland: that during the time of the settlement about 1000 years ago, Iceland had no permanent ice caps / glaciers. Obviously during the last ice age, Iceland was nearly entirely covered, but during the warming period around the time of the settlement, did this mean zero ice coverage? If so, surely a warmer climate in Iceland would bring many benefits to Iceland (things were certainly more hospitable during the settlement according to the research I’ve done!).
what do you think will happen to earths crust when the glaciers melt?
>what do you think will happen to earths crust when the glaciers melt?
That’s not me the ‘Original Terry!’ We must start an I.D. theft club Jim.
Really good question though, but think about it. What happens to crusts when they get wet? They become soggy of course.
Alex. Is it possible to stop this happening? It could become quite difficult should someone decide to be vindictive in a childish way.
Well, I’ve settled into my expanded name but, if another Jimbo comes along, I’ll have to expand it again…
At the beginning of the article suggested by Bjornsson I read ” Unlike most other glaciers in Iceland, new measurements reveal that Drangajökull has actually grown.”
To any smart person that should tell that only 1 glacier growing in the midst of many melting ones is proof of the exact contrary of what he/she was trying to say.
Does any1 have link to a study/mechanism about how extreme cold is caused by climate change?