(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2) Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 Sponsored by Vangard Sciences PO BOX 1031 Mesquite, TX 75150 There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS on duplicating, publishing or distributing the files on KeelyNet except where noted! September 2, 1993 TIBETICE.ASC -------------------------------------------------------------------- This file shared with KeelyNet courtesy of Rick Lawler. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ice Cores From Tibet Suggests Last 50 Years Warmest in 10,000 By DONALD J. FREDERICK, National Geographic For AP Special Features, May 21, 1993 Braving frigid blasts and bouts of altitude sickness, scientists are drilling for ancient ice in some of the world's most inhospitable places. The ice cores they are extracting from Greenland, Antarctica and the lofty Tibetan Plateau will contain records of changes in Earth's climate over hundreds of thousands of years. The cores also should help answer questions about global warming. Eventually, snows that fell as long as a million years ago may be analyzed to see what the climate was like then. More than 28,000 feet of ice cores from various depths and locations are stored in 3.3-foot-long aluminum cylinders at the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver, Colo., a facility run by the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Science Foundation and the University of Colorado. Instrumentation at the repository gives visiting scientists an opportunity to examine the cores. "Hopefully we'll go back about 250,000 years with the cores now being collected in Greenland," says Joan Fitzpatrick, technical director of the laboratory. "Ice is the only medium that enables us to get such a detailed record of the climate for such long periods." Some experts believe that increased levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are producing a dangerous global warming trend. Others argue that the higher temperatures occur because of natural climatic variations over long periods of time. The ice cores could help resolve the debate. Working at altitudes as high as 21,000 feet, a Chinese-American scientific team has been extracting cores from ice caps on the remote Tibetan Plateau. Evidence from some of the ice indicates that temperatures in Central Asia have been warmer in the past 50 years than at any other time since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago, says Lonnie Page 1 Thompson, leader of the U.S. group. Thompson, whose work in China has been supported by the National Geographic Society, sees similar trends in other parts of the world. Since 1963, more than 43 percent of the ice on Tanzania's Mount Kenya has disappeared. Glaciers are also vanishing in the Andes, where Thompson is taking ice cores. -------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have comments or other information relating to such topics as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page. Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet -------------------------------------------------------------------- If we can be of service, you may contact Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 2