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The Cryosphere
The surface temperatures of the Earth are close to the triple point
of water, 273.16 K, the temperature at which all 3 states of water
coexist as water vapour (gas), liquid water and ice (solid) in
thermodynamic equilibrium. Water is the only substance that is found
naturally in all 3 phases on Earth. Temperatures are below the triple
point of water, for at least part of the year, in about 35 % of the
world, including about half of the land mass of the Earth, promoting
frozen water at the surface of the Earth. All aspects of this frozen
realm are encompassed in the global cryosphere, such as glaciers and ice
sheets, sea ice, lake ice and river ice, permafrost, seasonal snow, and
ice crystals in the atmosphere.
Temperatures over much of the Earth's surface oscillate about
freezing temperature with the result that the cryosphere is especially
sensitive to global mean temperature changes. Global climate is also
affected directly by the state of the cryosphere because of its tight
coupling which represents one of the strongest feedback systems of the
Earth. The net radiation from the Sun is the primary governing factor of
the Earth's temperatures. Solar variability is modest on annual to
million-year timescales, being less than 1 % of the solar constant,
which results in net reflectivity being controlled by global albedo,
which is highly influenced by the extent of the area covered by snow and
ice on the surface of the Earth, making global albedo the single most
dynamic control of net radiation. The climate models by Mikhail Budyko
and William Sellers, that are said by the author1 to be
simple but illuminating, explored this feedback in the late 1960s, and
demonstrated the delicate balance between the cryosphere and the climate
of the Earth.
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8.2 ka Event from Greenland Ice Core
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8,2
ka Event - Links East
Asian Monsoon & Climate of the North Atlantic
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Abyssal Ocean Warming and Salinification Following Weddell Polynyas
in GDFL CM2G Coupled Climate Models
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Amundsen Sea Ice Shelves Increased Melting of Ice Shelves in the
Amundsen Sea
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Amundsen Sea Shelf Break Oceanographic Observations
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Ancestral East Antarctic Ice Sheet - Anatomy of a Meltwater Drainage
System Beneath it
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Anomalous Arctic Warming Linked to Reduced North American
Terrestrial Primary Productivity
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Antarctic Bottom Water in the Eastern Weddell Gyre Remotely
Induced Warming
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Antarctic Bottom Water - Freshening
and Warming 1980s-2000s
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Antarctic Climate Change and Environment -
Deep-Time, the Geological Dimension
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Antarctic Climate Change and Environment -
The
Holocene
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Antarctic Climate Change and Environment - Changes During the
Instrumental Period
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Antarctic Climate Change and Environment - Next 100 Years
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Antarctic Climate Change During the Last Interglacial and Local
Orbital Forcing
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Antarctic Dry Valleys Formation of Thermokarst in the McMurdo Dry
Valleys
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Antarctic Ice Sheet Mass Balance from 1992 to 2017
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Antarctic Ice Sheet the Prescience of Palaeoclimatology and its
Future
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Antarctic Ice Shelves Response of Pacific-Sector to the El
Niρo/Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
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Antarctic Sea
Ice
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Arctic Melting of Sea Ice in Summer Role of Polar Anticyclones and
Middle Latitude Cyclones
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Arctic Sea Ice Incredibly Thin Shocks Researchers
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Antarctic Sea Ice Expansion -
Important role of Ocean Warming and Increased Ice-Shelf Melt
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Arctic Methane Release Global Impact
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Antarctica - Role in Global Environment
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Antarctica - East
Antarctic Ice Sheet
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East Antarctic Ice Sheet - Dynamic Behaviour During the Pliocene
Warmth
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East Antarctica - Abrupt Climate Warming in the Early Holocene
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Antarctica Changing Icescapes
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Antarctic Glacier Grounding Lines Net Retreat
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Antarctica - Glacier Tongues
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Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets - Acceleration of their
Contribution to Sea Level Rise
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Antarctica - Outlet, Valley and Piedmont Glaciers
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Antarctica Has a Huge Mantle Plume Beneath it, Which Might Explain
its High Degree of Instability
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Antarctica - Ice Sheets - the glacial setting at the present
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Antarctic Ice Sheet Mass Balance 4 Decades 1979-2017
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Antarctica
- Ice Shelves
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Antarctica - Ice Flow Sensitivity of Pine Island Glacier to
Geothermal Heat Flux
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Antarctica Mobile Magma Beneath the Ice
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Antarctica The Threat Beneath
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Antarctica Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica, Marine Ice
Sheet Collapse Potentially Underway
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Arctic Warm Event Exceptional Air Mass Transport and Dynamical
Drivers of Extreme Wintertime Warm Event in the Arctic
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Glacier
Changes in Asia
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Larsen C Ice Shelf, Basal Crevasses Implications of
meltwater ponding and Hydrofracture
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Larsen C Ice Shelf Impact on Basal Melting of
Tide-Topography Interactions
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Larsen C Ice Shelf
In situ Observations of
Ocean Circulation Beneath it
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Larsen C Ice Shelf Marine Ice Formation in a Suture Zone and its
Influence on the Dynamics of the Ice Shelf
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Larsen C Ice Shelf the Structure and Effect of Suture
Zones
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Antarctica - Pine Island Glacier, subglacial melt channels &
Fracture in Floating Part
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Antarctica - Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, Rapid Subglacial
Erosion
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Antarctica - Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, Sustained Glacier
Retreat
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Antarctica - Pine Island Bay, West Antarctica Ice Cavity Water
Export
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Antarctica -
Polygonal Ground in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica its
Relationship to Depth of the Ice Table and Recent Climatic History
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Antarctica -
Sea Ice
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Antarctica Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica, Marine Ice
Sheet Collapse Potentially Underway
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Antarctica - The West Antarctic Ice Sheet - WAIS
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Antarctic Surface Waters - Abrupt Cooling and Sea Ice Expansion in
the Southern Ocean, South Atlantic Sector at 5,000 Cal Yr BP
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Atlantic Overturning Circulation and Labrador Sea Convection
Affected by Recent Increases in the Influx of Arctic Freshwater
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Bψlling Transition Global climate Changes Near-Synchronous in Ice
Core Record
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Bottom Water Export from Western Ross Sea, 2007-2010
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Brinicles
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Centennial Retreat of Glaciers - Categorical Evidence of Climate
Change
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East Siberian Arctic Shelf Waters Acidification by Freshwater
Addition and Terrestrial Carbon
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Submarine End Moraines on the Continental Shelf Off NE Greenland -
Implications for Late Glacial Dynamics
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Climate Feedback
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The Cryosphere - Biosphere Interactions
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Cryosphere Climate Links
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The
Cryosphere - The Geography of Snow and Ice on Earth
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The
Cryosphere - Glaciers & Ice Sheets
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The
Cryosphere - Albedo of Snow and Ice
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The
Cryosphere - Effects on the Hydrological Cycle
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The Cryosphere - Interaction
between Ocean and Ice
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The Cryosphere - Influence on Circulation of the Atmosphere
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The Cryosphere - As a Latent Energy Buffer
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The
Cryosphere - Permafrost
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During the Transition from the Last Interglacial to the Last Glacial
Air-Sea Decoupling Occurred in Western Europe
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Decoupling of Air-Sea Temperature in Western Europe During
the Interglacial-Glacial Transition
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East Antarctic Ice Shelf Meltwater Produced by Interaction between
wind and albedo stored in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet
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Glaciers Substantial mass Loss in the Tien Shan over the past 50
Years
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Global Thermohaline Circulation
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Global Tidal Impacts Resulting from Large-Scale Ice Sheet Collapses
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Greenland
Accelerating Changes in Ice Mass and Sensitivity of Ice Sheet to
Atmospheric Forcing
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Greenland Extreme Temperature Events in Observations and the MAR
Climate Model
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Greenland Ice Flow for the international Polar Year 2008-2009
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Greenland Ice Sheet Melting at the Base Explained by the History
of Iceland Hotspot
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Greenland Ice Sheet Palaeofluvial Mega-canyon Beneath the Central
Section
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Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt Amplified by Snowline migration and
bare Ice Exposure
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Greenland Ice Sheet Velocity Structure Changes
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Greenland Interstadials and the Younger Dryas-Preboreal Transition:
Early-Warning Signals for the Onsets
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Greenlands Marine Terminating Glaciers Changes to Understanding
the Dynamic Response to Oceanic and Atmospheric Forcing
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Greenland Meltwater Emerging Impact on the Formation of Deepwater in
the North Atlantic
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West Greenland Undercutting of Marine-Terminating Glaciers
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Greenland - Oceanic Transport of Surface Meltwater from Southern
Greenland Ice Sheet
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Hiawatha Glacier in Northwest Greenland A Large Impact Crater
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Southwest Labrador Sea off Newfoundland, Oceanographic changes in
the Holocene
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Jakobshavn Isbrae Acceleration Triggered by Warm Subsurface Ocean
Waters
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Kronebreen, Svalbard Effects of Undercutting and Sliding on
Calving: a Global Approach
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Marinoan Snowball Earth Glaciation Ice Sheet Fluctuations that
were Orbitally Forced
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Methane Emissions Proportional to Carbon from Permafrost Thawed in
Arctic Lakes Since the 1950s
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New Volcanic Province Inventory of Subglacial Volcanoes in West
Antarctica
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Northern Hemisphere Ice-Sheet Influences Global Climate Change
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Oceanic Convection Chimneys
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Oceanic Ice Shelf Melting the Effect of Basal Channels
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Pan-Arctic Melt Onset Recent Changes from Satellite Passive
Microwave Measurements
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Patagonian Icefields, South America, Ice Motion 1984-2014
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Penguin Colonisation of the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica,
Following the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition
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Permafrost carbon - Catalyst for deglaciation
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Permafrost High Biolability of Carbon in Ancient Permafrost upon
Thaw
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Permafrost stores an Amount of Mercury that is Globally Significant
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Pine Island Bay, West Antarctica Export and Circulation of Cavity
Water
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Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf Melt Distributed at Kilometre Scale
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Polar Wander Linked to Climate Change
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Polynyas in the Open Ocean and Southern Ocean Deep Convection
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Possible Global Ice Volume Changes and Geomagnetic Excursions and
Earth Orbital Eccentricity
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Ross Ice Shelf Basal Melting from the Absorption of Solar Heat in
an Ice Front Polynya
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Ross Ice Shelf Response to Climate Driven by Tectonic Imprint on
Bathymetry of Sea Floor
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A Rossby Wave Bridge Connecting West Antarctica to the Tropical
Atlantic Ocean
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Rossby Waves Mediate Impacts on West Antarctic Atmospheric
Circulation of Tropical Oceans
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Southern Ocean Overturn Upper Branch Water-Mass transformation by
Sea Ice
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The Southern Ocean has been slowing Global Warming by Absorbing
Carbon, But that Could Change
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Terrestrial Permafrost the Threat from Thawing
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Tidewater Glaciers Scalings for Submarine Melting from Buoyant Plume
Theory
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Totten Ice Shelf Rapid Basal Melt Driven by Ocean Heat
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Totten Glacier, East Antarctica - Ocean Access to a Cavity Beneath
it
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Totten Glacier Inland Bed Erosion Indicates Repeated Retreat on a
Large Scale
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Totten Ice Shelf Melt and Acceleration caused by Wind
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Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica Heterogeneous Retreat and Ice
Melt
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The Trezona delta-13C
Anomaly Beneath the Glaciation of the End-Cryogenian - Constraints of
the Origin and Relative Timing
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East Antarctic Ice Sheet - Initiation and Instability
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Warm Arctic Episodes Linked with Increasing Frequency of Extreme
Winter Weather in the US
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West Antarctic Ice Sheet Microbial Oxidation as Methane Sink
Beneath WAIS
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Western Tethys Glacial Dropstones during the Late Aptian-Early
Albian Cold Snap Palaeoclimate and Palaeogeographic Implications
for the Mid-Cretaceous
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Western Tibet Massive collapse of 2 Glaciers in 2016 following
Surge-like Instability
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Widespread increase in dynamic imbalance
in the Getz region of Antarctica from 1994 to 2018
Sources & Further
reading
- Marshall, Shawn J., 2012,,
The Cryospheree,
Princeton University Press..
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