A new study reveals that the effects of climate change will catch up to the blue blob if temperatures are not kept in check now let’s discuss what is blue blob the blue blob is an undefined area of the north Atlantic ocean located south of Iceland and Greenland at its peak coldness in 2015 the blue blob was 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit that is 1.4 degrees Celsius colder than the surrounding waters before the emergence of the blue blob ice lands glaciers were losing a staggering 11 giga tons of ice every year due to melting but since the cool patch emerged in 2011 that rate has more than halved to a slightly less worrying 5 gigatons a year although the rest of arctic is warming four times faster than anywhere else on earth now let’s discuss about effect of blue blob almost all of Iceland’s glaciers terminate on land meaning they do not come in contact with the sea therefore the rate at which they melt is dependent on their surface mass balance which is the difference between ice gained from winter snowfall and ice lost from melt water runoff in the summer however the blue blob is so cold that it decreases the temperature of the air that flows over it it then cools the atmosphere surrounding Iceland and in turn reduces the surface mass balance of its ice masses meaning less ice is lost now moving on to the key findings of the study in the new study researchers used climate models to predict how long the blue blob could continue to slow the glaciers rampant melting they found that the rising temperatures will overcome the cooling effect and match rapid melting rates seen in nearby Greenland and the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard by the mid-2050s this finding is important because it improves our understanding of trends throughout the arctic the researchers estimated that by 2100 a third of Iceland’s glaciers may be gone and that by 2300 there likely will be no glaciers left in the country blue blobs cooling effect on Iceland will not last forever and if left unchecked climate change will cause the total disappearance of Iceland glaciers in the not too distant future to conclude the arctic is warming fast if we wish to see glaciers in Iceland then we have to curb the warming.
Now it’s time for the practice question.
Blue blob recently seen in the news refers to which of the following.
New virus discovered in Nigeria waterborne disease indigenously developed submarine carrier or cold patch located south of Iceland and land