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https://theconversation.com/we-can-still-prevent-the-collapse-of-the-west-antarctic-ice-sheet-if-we-act-fast-to-keep-future-warming-in-check-215878>
"Projecting when and how fast the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will lose mass due
to current and future global ocean warming – and the likely impact on sea level
rise and coastal communities – is a priority for climate science.
We know deep water flowing towards and around Antarctica is warming, and the
fringes of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) are increasingly vulnerable to
ocean-driven melting.
Submerged continental shelves along large portions of West Antarctica,
including offshore Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers in the Amundsen Sea, are
already bathed by upwelling arms of this relatively warm water.
Ice shelves in this region – massive floating slabs of ice that flow out from
the coast – are already losing mass. Because ice shelves float, their melting
doesn’t affect sea levels. But they hold back land-based ice, which does.
Recent research suggests increasing flow of warm deep water in this area will
speed up the melting of the WAIS over the coming decades, regardless of future
anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
This would mean global net-zero emissions targets cannot limit the amount of
future sea-level rise caused by the melting of the WAIS. This poses significant
challenges for coastal communities in low-lying regions as they plan for and
adapt to unavoidable change.
Our project, an ambitious international collaboration known as the “Sensitivity
of the WAIS to 2°C” (SWAIS2C), aims to retrieve sediments from the seafloor
beneath the Ross Ice Shelf to explore how West Antarctica responded to warmer
periods in Earth’s past – and what might happen in a warming future."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
