June 25, 2017
Climate oddity: More Antarctic ice
Washington Post - Antarctic sea ice has grown to a record large extent for a second straight year, baffling scientists seeking to understand why this ice is expanding rather than shrinking in a warming world. On Saturday, the ice extent reached 19.51 million square kilometers, according to data posted on the National Snow and Ice Data Center Web site. That number bested record high levels set earlier this month and in 2012 (of 19.48 million square kilometers). Records date back to October 1978.
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This is not that great a mystery once one considers the mass volumes of fresh melt water flowing onto the the denser salt waters of the surrounding seas. Until fully integrated over time, the less dense relatively fresh melt waters tend to 'float' atop in thin strata that become more vulnerable to freezing---fresh water begins to freeze at 32 degrees F/0 degrees C, whereas ocean waters with their greater concentrations of salinity begin to freeze at about 28.4 degrees F/ -1.9 degrees C.
Apparently somebody at the Washington Post, or whoever dreamt up the caption for this post, needs to do a little more homework for there is really nothing that odd about it provided one possess some appreciation of physics and the natural sciences.
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