CRYOSPHERE

CRYOSPHERE

Nicolas Leiva

Fernanda Pavez

Martin Menard

Zoe Orive

Maximiliano Iglesias

DEFINITION

The cryosphere includes parts of the Earth system where water is in frozen (solid).

This includes snow, sea, ice, icebergs, ice sheets, glaciers, ice blocks and permafrost soils.

Approximately three quarter of the worlds freshwater is contained in the cryosphere.

WHERE IT IS FOUND ?

The cryosphere is comprised of regions in which water takes on solid form due to cold temperatures, essentially freezing water into ice. While areas around the Arctic and North Pole, and areas around the Antarctic and South Pole are part of the cryosphere, there are other places on Earth considered to be part of the cryosphere too. The Arctic is covered by the Arctic Ocean, a very cold ocean. During the winter months, the sea ice grows and then shrinks again during the summer months. The Arctic Ocean is ringed with permafrost and other frozen ground. Nearby land is covered with snow, ice, and glaciers. Greenland is also covered with a thick sheet of ice and snow.

Antarctica is a continent covered with a large sheet of ice. Floating ice shelves go into the ocean. Like the Arctic, icebergs form from ice sections breaking off and making their way into the ocean. As these icebergs float into warmer waters, they fall apart and melt.

HOW DOES HUMANS BEING AFFECT ?

Affects of changes in mountain glaciers and ice caps have been documented in runoff, changing hazard conditions (Haeberli and Burn, 2002) and ocean freshening (Bindoff et al., 2007). There is also emerging evidence of present crustal uplift in response to recent glacier melting in Alaska (Larsen et al., 2005). The enhanced melting of glaciers leads at first to increased river runoff and discharge peaks and an increased melt season (Boon et al., 2003; Hock, 2005; Hock et al., 2005; Juen et al., 2007), while in the longer time-frame (decadal to century scale), glacier wasting should be amplified by positive feedback mechanisms and glacier runoff is expected to decrease (Jansson et al., 2003). Evidence for increased runoff in recent decades due to enhanced glacier melt has already been detected in the tropical Andes and in the Alps. As glaciers disappear, the records preserved in the firn and ice layers are destroyed and disappear due to percolation of melt water and mixing of chemical species and stable isotopes.

WHY IS IMPORTANT ?

The cryosphere is an integral part of the global climate system with important linkages and feedbacks operating through its influence on energy, moisture and gas fluxes. Large areas of the cryosphere exist at temperatures close to melting and, as a result,

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