Scientists find record warm wa

Scientists find record warm water in Antarctica, pointing to cause behind troubling glacier melt Discovery serves as a warning signal for sea-level rise

A team of scientists has observed, for the first time, the presence of warm water at a vital point underneath a glacier in Antarctica—an alarming discovery that points to the cause behind the gradual melting of this ice shelf while also raising concerns about sea-level rise around the globe.

“Warm waters in this part of the world, as remote as they may seem, should serve as a warning to all of us about the potential dire changes to the planet brought about by climate change,” explains David Holland, director of NYU Abu Dhabi’s Center for Global Sea Level Change and New York University’s Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. “If these waters are causing glacier melt in Antarctica, resulting changes in sea level would be felt in more inhabited parts of the world.” The recorded warm waters—more than two degrees above freezing— flow beneath the Thwaites Glacier, which is part of the Western Ant

arctic Ice Sheet. The discovery was made at the glacier’s grounding zone—the place at which the ice transitions between resting fully on bedrock and floating on the ocean as an ice shelf and which is key to the overall rate of retreat of a glacier.

Thwaites’ demise alone could have significant impact globally.

It would drain a mass of water that is roughly the size of Great Britain or the state of Florida and currently accounts for approximately 4 percent of global sea-level rise. Some scientists see Thwaites as the most vulnerable and most significant glacier in the world in terms of future global sea-level rise—its collapse would raise global sea levels by nearly one meter, perhaps overwhelming existing populated areas.

While the glacier’s recession has been observed over the past decade, the causes behind this change had previously not been determined.

“The fact that such warm water was just now recorded by our team along a section of Thwaites grounding zone where we have known the glacier is melting suggests that it may be undergoing an unstoppable retreat that has huge implications for global sea level rise,” notes Holland, a professor at NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences as well as the US lead of this joint US-UK project on the Thwaites Glacier.

The scientists’ measurements were made in early January, after the research team created a 600-meter deep and 35-centimeter wide access hole and deployed an ocean-sensing device to measure the waters moving below the glacier’s surface. This device gauges the turbulence of the water as well as other properties such as temperature. The result of turbulence is the mixing

It marks the first time that the ocean cavity at the Thwaites Glacier grounding zone has been accessed through a bore hole and that a scientific instrument measuring underlying ocean turbulence and mixing has been deployed at that site. The hole was opened on January 8 and 9 and the waters beneath the glacier measured January 10 and 11.

Aurora Basinski, an NYU graduate student who made the turbulence measurement, said, “From our observations into the ocean cavity at the grounding zone we observed not only the presence of warm water, but also its turbulence level and thus its efficiency to melt the ice shelf base.”

This research was supported by a $2.1 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation (PLR-1739003). The grant is part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC), headed by the United Kingdom’s Natural Environment Research Council and the National Science Foundation, which has been deploying scientists to gather the data needed to understand whether the glacier’s collapse could begin in the next few decades or centuries. Other members of the field team included researchers from Penn State, Georgia Tech, and the British Antarctic Survey.

Another researcher, Keith Nicholls, a scientist with the British Antarctic Survey and the UK lead of the project, added, “This is an important result as this is the first time turbulent dissipation measurements have been made in the critical grounding zone of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.”

Held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the UAE, the ninth season of Abu Dhabi Classics shone the spotlight on the true magic of ballet with a captivating Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet evening at Cultural Foundation on Friday, January 31.

Celebrated ballerinas Kristina Kretova, Eleonora Sevenard, Margarita Shrayner and Bolshoi’s prima, Anastasia Stashkevich, were joined by world-famous male contemporaries Denis Rodkin, Vyacheslav Lopatin, Igor Tsvirko and Jacopo Tissi, in a two-act performance of grace and beauty, taking the audience on a journey through some of the finest ballets in history.

The evening opened with a pas de deux from ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and the famed balcony scene from ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Stashkevich and Lopatin then took to the stage in a duet from ‘Chroma’, and then Rodkin and Sevenard stunned the audience with their ‘Spartacus’ performance. Act One then closed with a spectacular performance of ‘The Flames of Paris’ and ‘The Dying Swan’. In Act Two, the audience were treated to pas de deux from ‘Swan Lake’, ‘Carmen Suite’, ‘La Sylphide’, ‘Russian Dance’ and ‘The Nutcracker’ with the enthralling evening of ballet ending with grand pas de deux from ‘Don Quixote’.

Abu Dhabi Classics, presented by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, brought to you by du Live and produced by Flash Entertainment, continues Saturday 1 February with a performance by French solo pianist Lise de la Salle at the Cultural Foundation.

Garden City British School opened its portals on 23rd January, 2020, to welcome the Finnish Ambassador to the UAE, Ms. Marianne Nissilä. It was definitely a historic moment for the school having a diplomat at school, not to merely visit, but more so to witness the unique learning experiences that the students have at the school.

Keeping up with the school’s philosophy of collaboration, it is very conspicuous that the school has taken its philosophy very seriously and going beyond borders with the visit of Ms. Marianne Nissilä. The diplomat, having been the Ambassador of Education in Finland, was very eager to see the kind of learning that happens within and out of the classrooms and how the school builds its learning environment beyond the walls of the class. It was really a great experience to have an educator wear the diplomat’s hat from the most sort after place in the world for education – Finland.

The school also rolled out the red carpet to welcome officials from the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK), Mr. Mohammed Alhashmei and Ms. Noora Al Rasheedi. The school was also very happy and felt privileged to have Ms. from the Crown Prince Office, whose primary focus was to see how the school implemented the Moral Education Programme through a technology driven, cross curricular approach. This was a further endorsement from the Crown Prince Office, having officially given the school the status of being a “note-worthy school in its implementation of the Moral Education Programme.

Ms. Marianne Nissilä along with the ADEK officials, the Management and the Board of Governors, began the day with the morning assembly. The assembly began with the warming up, followed by the School Choir singing the UAE National Anthem and the Finnish National Anthem. The Ambassador and her team was pleasantly surprised to hear the rendition of the Finnish National Anthem and said that is singing and pronunciation was perfect. The students then presented a skit on the Environment and how man’s intervention has greatly affected its’ survival. After the Assembly, the team went on a school tour along with the principal, Ms. Jaana Wilkko. Ms. Marianne Nissilä and the other officials were very impressed to see active learning, student led lessons and technology driven classes through the use of learning applications such as Seppo, Qridi and Eduten. The Ambassador, in particular, commented that the school mirrored the Finnish education in so many ways, which she said, is so wonderful to see – not just because it mirrors Finnish model of education, but more so because of the exciting and enthusiastic learning that children experience at Garden City British School.

It was truly an honour for Garden City British School to have Ms. Marianne Nissilä, the Ambassador of Finland to the UAE, and the dignitaries Mr. Mohammed Alhashemi, Ms. Noora Al Rasheedi from ADEK and Ms. Alanoud A Khabi from the Crown Prince Office visit the school and interact with the children and above all, to see learning happening, which is what makes a school a true abode of learning.

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