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Melting Ice, Rising Seas: Studying Change in Ice Sheets & Glaciers

Grade level: 9-12
Themes: climate, ocean circulation, water cycle
Video: melting_ice_02.flv

It's important to understand how the world's ice sheets form, how they change over time, and how fast they are moving into the sea. That's where researchers like NASA's Lora Koenig come in. She recently spent three months in Greenland studying the composition of those ice sheets. All ice sheets and glaciers start as snowfall. Those tiny flakes get compressed by the weight of more snow above, and eventually become dense masses of ice.

Lora Koenig: "What we're seeing right now on the ice sheets and glaciers is that they are shrinking in size. And as glaciers on land are shrinking overall, that contributes a little bit to sea level rise. And we are worried that as we see warming over the ice sheets, and increased melting over the ice sheets, that they are going to start contributing much more to sea level rise." (source)
 
Student Outcomes 
After viewing this video, students should be able to:

Explain how climate variations can induce changes in the global ocean circulation. (C: 9-12)

Explain the relationship between fresh water and ocean dynamics. (W: 9-12)

Determine if global precipitation, evaporation, and the cycling of water are changing. (W: 9-12)

Key:  C = climate / O = ocean circulation / T = 21st century technology / W = water cycle