The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate
In 1959 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Camp Century beneath the surface of the northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet. There they studied the feasibility of deploying ballistic missiles within the ice sheet. The base and its wastes were abandoned with minimal decommissioning in 1967, under the ass...
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ftreroch:oai:doc.rero.ch:20161104093803-LD 2023-05-15T16:27:28+02:00 The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate Colgan, William Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Mike Colgan, Jeff D. As, Dirk van MacGregor, Joseph A. 2016-11-04T08:40:37Z http://doc.rero.ch/record/277687/files/mac_ais.pdf http://doc.rero.ch/record/277687/files/mac_ais_sm.pdf eng eng http://doc.rero.ch/record/277687/files/mac_ais.pdf http://doc.rero.ch/record/277687/files/mac_ais_sm.pdf 2016 ftreroch 2023-02-16T17:27:01Z In 1959 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Camp Century beneath the surface of the northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet. There they studied the feasibility of deploying ballistic missiles within the ice sheet. The base and its wastes were abandoned with minimal decommissioning in 1967, under the assumption they would be preserved for eternity by perpetually accumulating snowfall. Here we show that a transition in ice sheet surface mass balance at Camp Century from net accumulation to net ablation is plausible within the next 75 years, under a business-as-usual anthropogenic emissions scenario (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5). Net ablation would guarantee the eventual remobilization of physical, chemical, biological, and radiological wastes abandoned at the site. While Camp Century and four other contemporaneous ice sheet bases were legally established under a Danish-U.S. treaty, the potential remobilization of their abandoned wastes, previously regarded as sequestered, represents an entirely new pathway of political dispute resulting from climate change. Other/Unknown Material Greenland Ice Sheet RERO DOC Digital Library Eternity ENVELOPE(-64.567,-64.567,-69.767,-69.767) Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
RERO DOC Digital Library |
op_collection_id |
ftreroch |
language |
English |
description |
In 1959 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Camp Century beneath the surface of the northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet. There they studied the feasibility of deploying ballistic missiles within the ice sheet. The base and its wastes were abandoned with minimal decommissioning in 1967, under the assumption they would be preserved for eternity by perpetually accumulating snowfall. Here we show that a transition in ice sheet surface mass balance at Camp Century from net accumulation to net ablation is plausible within the next 75 years, under a business-as-usual anthropogenic emissions scenario (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5). Net ablation would guarantee the eventual remobilization of physical, chemical, biological, and radiological wastes abandoned at the site. While Camp Century and four other contemporaneous ice sheet bases were legally established under a Danish-U.S. treaty, the potential remobilization of their abandoned wastes, previously regarded as sequestered, represents an entirely new pathway of political dispute resulting from climate change. |
author |
Colgan, William Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Mike Colgan, Jeff D. As, Dirk van MacGregor, Joseph A. |
spellingShingle |
Colgan, William Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Mike Colgan, Jeff D. As, Dirk van MacGregor, Joseph A. The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate |
author_facet |
Colgan, William Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Mike Colgan, Jeff D. As, Dirk van MacGregor, Joseph A. |
author_sort |
Colgan, William |
title |
The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate |
title_short |
The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate |
title_full |
The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate |
title_fullStr |
The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate |
title_full_unstemmed |
The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate |
title_sort |
abandoned ice sheet base at camp century, greenland, in a warming climate |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://doc.rero.ch/record/277687/files/mac_ais.pdf http://doc.rero.ch/record/277687/files/mac_ais_sm.pdf |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-64.567,-64.567,-69.767,-69.767) |
geographic |
Eternity Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Eternity Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
http://doc.rero.ch/record/277687/files/mac_ais.pdf http://doc.rero.ch/record/277687/files/mac_ais_sm.pdf |
_version_ |
1766016647503544320 |