EARTH CHANGES

Global warming yields “glacial earthquakes,” future sea level rise

In new studies, scientists report that global warming may be responsible for a newfound and growing phenomenon, “glacial earthquakes".
Three studies published in the March 24 issue of the research journal Science warn of the events.

Two studies found that the Earth may be warm enough by 2100 for widespread melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and partial collapse of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
In a third study, seismologists reported an unexpected offshoot of global warming: “glacial earthquakes,” in which island-sized glaciers lurch unexpectedly. Glaciers are normally slow-moving masses of ice.
The lurches yield temblors up to magnitude 5.1 on the moment-magnitude scale, which is similar to the Richter scale, the researchers said.
 
[Glacial earthquakes in Greenland, they added, are most common in July and August, and have more than doubled in number since 2002.]