ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
    • Animals
    • Climate
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • FutureNEW
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
HomeEnvironmentClimate

West Antarctic Ice Sheet might melt faster, adding three extra feet to sea level rise by 2100

A refined model based on equations which accurately reproduced sea level rise events from hundreds of thousands of years ago suggests this massive ice sheet is disintegrating faster then previously thought.

Tibi Puiu byTibi Puiu
March 31, 2016
inClimate, News
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSubmit to Reddit

The great ice sheet of West Antarctica is as big as Mexico and holds enough volume of ice to raise the sea level by 12 feet. A refined model based on equations which accurately reproduced sea level rise events from hundreds of thousands of years ago suggests this massive ice sheet is disintegrating faster then previously thought. It could raise the sea level by an extra three feet, bringing the total projected sea level rise to five to six feet by 2100 — twice as much than the estimates reported in a worse case scenario by the U.N.

Two Antarctic ice shelves on the verge of collapsing—the Pine Island Glacier (shown) and the Thwaites Glacier—will cause the ultimate collapse of the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Credit: NASA
Two Antarctic ice shelves on the verge of collapsing—the Pine Island Glacier (shown) and the Thwaites Glacier—will cause the ultimate collapse of the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Credit: NASA

Robert M. DeConto of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and David Pollard, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University, led the new research.

Modeling the effects of global warming on Antarctica’s ice sheets is a complex affair. Compared with the coupled ocean-atmosphere climate system, an ice sheet might seem a rather simple system to model numerically. Ice sheets are composed of a single, largely homogeneous material.  But it is in specifying the stress boundary conditions on  two of the ice sheet interfaces—its base and its seaward margin—that the difficulty arises.

ADVERTISEMENT

Determining whether small changes could trigger a substantial deglaciation in a complex chain of events is thus very difficult. It’s clear that global warming is exacerbating the melting of Antarctica’s ice sheet, but by how much and when will the critical point be reached? These sort of questions keep climate scientists awake at night. Results may be skewed due to the sheer complexity, but the best way to check if results touch reality is to compare with the past.

For the first time, a climate model accurately reproduced high sea level rise from the past

DeConto and Pollard had a very sophisticated climate model at their disposal, but it proved woefully inadequate when they used it to explain the behaviour of ice sheets in the past. Specifically, that from a climatic period about 125,000 years ago when the seas rose to levels 20 to 30 feet higher than today. Something was missing to piece the model together.

The missing link proved to be the huge shelves of floating ice that acts like a buffer and protect the West Antarctic ice sheet from melting.Without them, glacial ice enters the ocean faster and accelerates the pace of global sea level rise.  In 2002, an ice shelf the size of Rhode Island, the Larsen B, partially collapsed. This happened in only two weeks.

When the researchers factored in global warming’s attack on floating ice shelves, vast, sheer cliffs of ice facing the sea formed. Many are high and unstable, so collapse is imminent. This results in a rapid shrinkage of the ice sheet as the cliffs collapse. The researchers note similar effects are being observed already in Greenland and, at a smaller scale, in Antarctica.

ADVERTISEMENT

The new version of the model allowed the scientists, for the first time, to reproduce high sea levels of the past, the New York Times reports. Another interesting finding was that the ice sheet shrinkage can be avoided if the planet decarbonizes. This is contrary to other study who reported the disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet has already begun and is irreversible. To prevent the collapse, however, carbon emissions need to be lowered far more aggressively than currently agreed up by U.N. states in Paris, last year.

Tags: antarcticaClimate
ShareTweetShare

How much money are you losing by not going solar? Use our savings calculator for rooftop solar.

Tibi Puiu

Tibi Puiu

Tibi is a science journalist and co-founder of ZME Science. He writes mainly about emerging tech, physics, climate, and space. In his spare time, Tibi likes to make weird music on his computer and groom felines.

ADVERTISEMENT

EDITOR'S PICKS

Leaf blowers are not only annoying but also bad for you (and the environment)
Environment

Leaf blowers are not only annoying but also bad for you (and the environment)

by Alexandru Micu
November 15, 2019 - Updated on November 17, 2019

It comes down to the inefficient engines they use.

Read more
What are greenhouse gases and why we need to worry about them? A simple explainer

What are greenhouse gases and why we need to worry about them? A simple explainer

November 15, 2019
The difference between programming and coding with Leslie Lamport

The difference between programming and coding with Leslie Lamport

November 15, 2019
Why ketamine is so good against depression

Why ketamine is so good against depression

November 8, 2019
pixabay-brain-fog

What is brain fog: the mental fatigue that ruins your mood

October 25, 2019
ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
  • More

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
    • Animals
    • Climate
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

Before you leave...
Subscribe to ZME Science 
Every weekday, we send out a free newsletter with the most exciting science news of the moment.
Stay Updated
By subscribing you agree to our Privacy Policy. Give it a try, you can unsubscribe anytime.
close-link