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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American Geophysical Union
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ftunivzuerich:oai:www.zora.uzh.ch:126150 2024-10-13T14:07:40+00:00 The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate Colgan, William Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Mike Colgan, Jeff D van As, Dirk MacGregor, Joseph A 2016 application/pdf https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/126150/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/126150/1/Colgan_GRL_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-126150 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069688 eng eng American Geophysical Union https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/126150/1/Colgan_GRL_2016.pdf doi:10.5167/uzh-126150 doi:10.1002/2016GL069688 urn:issn:0094-8276 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Colgan, William; Machguth, Horst; MacFerrin, Mike; Colgan, Jeff D; van As, Dirk; MacGregor, Joseph A (2016). The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate. Geophysical Research Letters, 43(15):8091-8096. Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel Journal Article PeerReviewed info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2016 ftunivzuerich https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-12615010.1002/2016GL069688 2024-09-18T00:49:48Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet University of Zurich (UZH): ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive Greenland Eternity ENVELOPE(-64.567,-64.567,-69.767,-69.767) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Zurich (UZH): ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivzuerich |
language |
English |
topic |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel |
spellingShingle |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel Colgan, William Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Mike Colgan, Jeff D van As, Dirk MacGregor, Joseph A The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate |
topic_facet |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel |
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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Colgan, William Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Mike Colgan, Jeff D van As, Dirk MacGregor, Joseph A |
author_facet |
Colgan, William Machguth, Horst MacFerrin, Mike Colgan, Jeff D van As, Dirk 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 |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/126150/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/126150/1/Colgan_GRL_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-126150 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069688 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-64.567,-64.567,-69.767,-69.767) |
geographic |
Greenland Eternity |
geographic_facet |
Greenland Eternity |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Colgan, William; Machguth, Horst; MacFerrin, Mike; Colgan, Jeff D; van As, Dirk; MacGregor, Joseph A (2016). The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in a warming climate. Geophysical Research Letters, 43(15):8091-8096. |
op_relation |
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/126150/1/Colgan_GRL_2016.pdf doi:10.5167/uzh-126150 doi:10.1002/2016GL069688 urn:issn:0094-8276 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-12615010.1002/2016GL069688 |
_version_ |
1812814182035226624 |