Icecap
An Icecap is a thick layer of ice covering the peak of a mountain or other area of land, it may further be described as perennial or permanent because it remains in place throughout the year or years. The National Geographic defines an Icecap as ' a glacier .. . less than 50,000 square kilometres (19,000 square miles)' where an Ice sheet is defined as 'glacial ice covering more than 50,000 square kilometres (19,000 square miles)'.
The definition or an ice cap as permanent or perennial is however used less and less because icecaps previously thought of as permanent have been decreasing in size and number due to the impacts of climate change. The National Geographic reports 'Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, the tallest mountain in Africa, used to have enormous ice caps on its summit. Today, the Furtwangler glacier is the mountain's only remaining ice cap, at 60,000 square kilometres (23,166 square miles). The Furtwangler glacier is melting at a very rapid pace, however, and Africa may lose its only remaining ice cap.'
The Vatnajökull ice cap is approximately. 7700 km2 (covering ca 8% of Iceland) and is considered by some Europe’s largest ice cap by volume, although it has lost more than 15% of its volume during the last century, as reported by the associated National park.
The Severny Island ice cap on Severny Island, in Russia covers 40% of Severny Island (which is the 30th largest island in the world) at total area of approximately 20,500 km2(7,900 sq mi) which when considered part of Europe, would make it the largest glacier by area. Scientific America reported in 2019 that the nearby Vavilov Ice ca lost about 9.5 billion tons of ice in the preceeding six years.
The largest single mass of ice on Earth is the Antarctic ice sheet which covers an area of almost 14 million square kilometres (14 square miles) and contains 30 million km3 of ice. The academic journal nature reported that this ice sheet lost 2,720 ± 1,390 billion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2017, which corresponds to an increase in the mean sea level of 7.6 ± 3.9 millimetres (errors on one standard deviation)
The largest glacier in the world, is Antarctica's Lambert Glacier, one of the world’s fastest-moving ice streams. Ice streams are parts of an ice sheet that move faster than the sheet as a whole. The current (2022) rate of melt of the Lambert Glacier is though to be 5 metres a year, though this may increase not only from continued emissions but also changing microclimates due to seas being darker than glaciers and thus absorbing rather than reflecting heat.
[edit] External Links
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0179-y
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/big-thaw
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- Climate change science.
- Chlorofluorocarbons CFCs.
- COP21 Paris 2015.
- CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.
- Earth overshoot day.
- Energy Act.
- Energy Related Products Regulations.
- Environmental consultant.
- Environmental impact assessment.
- Environmental legislation.
- ICE launches engineering route map to deliver UN SDGs.
- Mean lean green.
- Perennial.
- Smart cities.
- Sustainable development.
- Sustainability.
- Sustainable materials.
- The future of UK power generation.
- Zero carbon homes.
- Zero carbon non-domestic buildings.
Featured articles and news
Women and unequal pay in project management
Main barrier to entering the profession, new study reveals.
IHBC’s response to Parliamentary Committee
On Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill.
Finalists for 2022 CIOB Awards revealed
Over 70 managers and organisations shortlisted for the 14 awards.
Types of building sensors on BD
From biometric to electrical current, chemical and more.
Government mandates detectors in rented homes
Changes are due to come into force on 1st October 2022.
80% of major government projects are rated red or amber
Heed advice and insight of this report IPA tells the government.
The end of the games but continued calls for action
From the Commonwealth Association of Architects.
CIOB respond to the government call for evidence
For the Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Committee.
How are buildings and their occupants responding to extreme heat?
BSRIA's Technical Director reflects on recent weather patterns.
Landownership in England in 1909
A national valuation to fund old-age pensions.
The world’s largest Commonwealth memorial to the missing.
Long after the end of the defects liability period.
BSRIA Occupant Wellbeing survey BOW
Occupant satisfaction and wellbeing in buildings.
Geometric form and buildings in brief
From the simple to the complex.
Understanding the changing nature of insulation
And the UK Government guidelines.
Three year action plan to improve equity, diversity and inclusion
Commitment agreed to by major built environment bodies.
The Construction Route – what needs to change?
Electrical skills, low carbon, high-tech and the building services revolution.
Deep geothermal power possibilities
Ultra-deep drilling with millimeter-wave beam technology.
BSRIA Briefing 2022- From the outside looking in
Looking at the built environment from space.
Competence requirements for principal contractors and designers
BSI standards 8671, 8672 and 8673.
Bringing life to burial grounds.
From failed modernism to twenty-minute neighbourhoods.
Design chill and design freeze
The gates process and change control.