Study raises concerns over big, rapidly thinning Antarctic glacier

NASA video shows ice melt in Antarctica
Source: NASA
NASA video shows ice melt in Antarctica 02:01
(CNN)Scientists have raised concerns about a large, rapidly thinning glacier in Antarctica, warning it could contribute significantly to rising sea levels.
They say they've discovered two openings that could channel warm seawater to the base of the huge Totten Glacier and bring the threat of potentially disastrous melting.
The glacier is bigger and thinning faster than all the others in East Antarctica.
It contains enough ice to raise the global sea level by at least 11 feet (3.4 meters), according toresearchers from the University of Texas at Austin who were among the authors of a new studypublished this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Scientists had previously detected warm water on the seaward side of the glacier. But until now, they had found no evidence that it could threaten coastal ice.
    "We now know there are avenues for the warmest waters in East Antarctica to access the most sensitive areas of Totten Glacier," said Jamin Greenbaum, a University of Texas Ph.D. candidate and the lead author of the study.

    Worries about other parts of Antarctica

    The two gateways on the seafloor that lead to the base of the glacier offer an explanation for why Totten Glacier has been melting so fast.
    Scientists have already warned about the consequences of melting ice in West Antarctica. NASA said last year that glacial retreat in some areas "appears unstoppable."
    The increase in sea levels that would be caused by the melting of all the ice in Totten Glacier is estimated to be roughly equivalent to the contribution from a collapse of the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
    The United Nations' report on climate change last year estimated sea levels could rise between 1 foot and 3 feet by 2100. Such a rise could displace tens of millions of people from coastal areas around the world.

    Melt could become 'irreversible'

    But that calculation doesn't factor in the latest research on Antarctica.
    "While the Totten melt may take several centuries, once change has begun our analysis reveals it would likely be irreversible," Greenbaum said in comments cited by the Australian Antarctic Division.
    To prevent the process from becoming unstoppable, atmospheric and oceanic conditions would need to change so that snowfall outpaces coastal melting, the researchers said.
    The scientists gathered their data through a series of aerial surveys using technology that can scan the ice and seafloors in areas that are inaccessible to icebreakers. The team included researchers from the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

    Comments

    Post a Comment

    Popular posts from this blog

    Climate Change Skeptics Lash Out At New Global Warming ‘Hiatus’ Study That Questions Ocean Temperature Measurements

    Image
    Share on facebook 227 Share on twitter 22 Share on linkedin Share on google_plusone_share More Sharing Services 128 An estimated 35,000 walruses are pictured crowding on a beach near Point Lay, Alaska, because of a lack of sea ice in this September 2014 photo. A study published June 4, 2015, refuting the notion that the Earth’s temperature rise has been interrupted since 1998 was lambasted by the usual skeptics and their supporters.  Corey Accardo/NOAA/NMFS/AFSC/NMML/Via Reuters A new climate study was released Thursday that refutes the claim that there’s been a slowdown, or “hiatus” in the rate the Earth is warming, but some conservative-leaning media sites skipped covering the study itself and chose instead to promote the views of the minority of climate change deniers, such as  Christopher Monckton . For example, the Drudge Report, an immensely popular headline aggregator operated by conservative Matthew Drudge, promi...
    Read more

    Global warming could drive world temperatures up 7 degrees by 2100

    Another piece of the  global warming  puzzle has been revealed. According to new research published on Jan. 1 in the journal  Nature , increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will reduce the number of clouds that form. This, in turn, will cause temperatures to rise much higher than previous climate-change models have predicted. According to this new research, global temperatures could rise 4 degrees Celsius or 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100, and twice that by 2200. Lead researcher Steven Sherwood at the Climate Change Research Center at Australia's University of New South Wales, told  The Guardian  that this level of climate change would be "catastrophic rather than simply dangerous. For example, it would make life difficult, if not impossible, in much of the tropics, and would guarantee the eventual melting of the Greenland ice sheet and some of the Antarctic ice sheet."   In a  news release , Sherwood said this new...
    Read more

    Why Is Critical Technology to Stop Global Warming Stalled?

    Image
    Pumping CO2 underground can help fight climate change but remains untested for the most part March 12, 2015  | By  Howard J. Herzog  and  The Conversation US Injection of CO2 and other gases into geological formations has been practiced for many years.  Credit:  SaskPower There are many uncertainties with respect to global climate change, but there is one thing about which I have no doubts: we will not solve climate change by running out of fossil fuels. Understanding this leads to three posible pathways we can follow to lower greenhouse gas concentrations, and explains why I’ve chosen to focus  my research  on carbon capture and storage. We can: continue to burn fossil fuels with little or no restrictions. We will blow by atmospheric CO2 concentrations of 450 parts per million (ppm), the level many scientists think is dangerous to exceed, and we will keep on going. We have enough fossil fuels to easily go above 1,000 ppm. The impac...
    Read more