Abstract
THE Royal Geographical Society has inaugurated its new Research Series with a paper by Prof. H. W. Ahlmann on glaciological research on the North Atlantic coasts (London : Royal Geographical Society, 1948. 7s. 6d.). Prof. Ahlmann puts together his own and other observations on glaciers in Norway, Iceland, East Greenland and Spitsbergen. All data point the same way, to a general recession, and the same is true in many other parts of the world. The present rapid shrinkage seems to be the last stage in a recession that began about two hundred years ago when the glaciers reached their maximum extension in historical, and perhaps in post-glacial, times. This recession has resulted too in a rise of sea-level, as noted by J. Thorarinsson, F. Bergsten and others. The increasing intensity of the recession is also shown by recent changes in the extension of the Arctic pack-ice, notably in the Russian Arctic and around Spitsbergen, the northward migration of fish and certain birds and the improved cereal prospects in Iceland. The phenomenon is so widespread that it would appear to be associated with climatic fluctuations. The chief meteorological cause is held to be due to increased ablation. Radiation plays a part ; but conduction, is more important in the smaller icefields and at lower altitudes. On the other hand, it is stated that in the high interior of the Greenland ice there has been no increased ablation or reduced thickness of the ice. The low-pressure area of the North Atlantic apparently has moved to the north in recent years, thus favouring the flow of warm air to the Arctic.
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Recession of Glaciers. Nature 162, 484 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162484a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162484a0