A massive glacier system has started collapsing in West Antarctica due to global warming, and studies by two different teams of scientists claim the collapse will result in a significant rise in sea levels worldwide.
A slow-motion disaster may be unfolding according to two different teams of scientists. The scientists reported earlier this week that the Thwaites Glacier, which acts as a keystone holding back the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet is starting to collapse. According to the reports, the entire ice sheet is doomed to collapse, raising sea levels worldwide by as much as four feet or more.
In an article published online today in Science, one team combined recent data on the receding 182,000-square-kilometer Thwaites Glacier with computer modeling of the glacier’s dynamics to forecast future movement.
The rapidly melting West Antarctic Ice Sheet is in an irreversible state of decline according to the latest NASA study. As a result, the ‘ice-dam’ preventing glaciers in the area melting into the sea will ultimately disappear.
The rapidly melting West Antarctic Ice Sheet is in an irreversible state of decline according to the latest NASA study. As a result, the ‘ice-dam’ preventing glaciers in the area melting into the sea will ultimately disappear.
West Antarctic glaciers already contribute significantly to sea level rise. They release as much ice into the ocean annually as the entire Greenland Ice Sheet and contain enough ice to increase global sea levels by 4 feet (1.2 meters). The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting faster than most scientists had expected, meaning that current predictions of sea level rise will need to be revised upward.
Researchers from NASA and the University of California, Irvine used 40 years of observations in their study published Monday. Lead author Eric Rignot, of UC Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena said the multiple lines of evidence considered by the researchers lead them to conclude that glaciers in the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica “have passed the point of no return.”
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