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+--- Thread: Why the Last Snow on Earth May Be Red (/thread-4238.html)
Why the Last Snow on Earth May Be Red - C C - Sep 22, 2017
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/why-the-last-snow-on-earth-may-be-red
EXCERPT: [...] Watermelon snow is a perfectly natural phenomenon, but in an age of disappearing glaciers it is also problematic. Last year, scientists discovered that the algae had reduced the amount of sunlight reflected by some glaciers in Scandinavia—and increased the amount of sunlight absorbed—by thirteen per cent. The result, as Dial and his colleagues demonstrated in this month’s issue of Nature Geoscience, is faster melting. As in other parts of the warming planet—particularly the Arctic, where scientists fear that thawing permafrost may be triggering a climatic feedback loop—the effect is likely self-perpetuating. Ice sheets are already being darkened by dust, soot, and ash, which hasten melting and add nutrients on which algae can flourish. As the organisms proliferate, they melt even more snow, which allows them to proliferate again. “It spreads more rapidly than people realize, once it gets established,” Dial said. Chlamydomonas algae turns from green to red when placed on snow.....
MORE: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/why-the-last-snow-on-earth-may-be-red