Just as technology that will accelerate the transition to a carbon emissions free future is developing more rapidly than most experts could imagine even five years ago it turns out that we are shooting at a moving target. We need to develop and adopt solutions much more quickly than thought necessary because our planet’s climate is deteriorating materially more rapidly than we conceived. This is becoming increasingly obvious. The signs are everywhere and undeniable (although some try to).
Up till now, there was some reason to believe that Antarctica was not experiencing the same degree of warming as other parts of the globe especially the Arctic. Well, that may not now be the case. And a melting Antarctic will most likely impact our society significantly more than Arctic melting will. That’s because ice on the top of the planet is floating and won’t have much impact on raising sea levels just as ice in your drink doesn’t raise the fluid level in your glass when it melts. But ice in the Antarctic is mostly on land and when it melts it DOES raise sea levels. And, there is an enormous amount of ice in Antartica and Greenland. And in both places it’s melting much faster than was thought just a couple of years ago.
“The north-west sector of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, which in total is roughly the size of France, is melting far faster than scientists previously thought”
“Scientists have discovered that ocean water warmed by the sun is melting part of the world’s largest ice shelf 10 times faster than the overall average.”
“Smaller ice shelves floating in warmer ocean water are melting 100-200 times faster than large shelves, said the BAS.”
While melting ice shelves won’t raise sea levels it will impact ocean salinity which in turn will have other severe impacts. Furthermore, as the ocean warms this will create a feedback loop that will further speed up melting. BIG, BIG trouble even if it’s not right in your own back yard. The freight train is coming right at us faster and faster and the consequences are enormous and in fact ARE already effecting us all every day. More on that to come.
World’s Largest Ice Shelf Melting 10 Times Faster Than the Average
By Jack Guy, CNN
Tuesday April 30, 2019
The Ross Ice Shelf is around the same size as France.
(CNN)Scientists have discovered that ocean water warmed by the sun is melting part of the world’s largest ice shelf 10 times faster than the overall average.
The north-west sector of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, which in total is roughly the size of France, is melting far faster than scientists previously thought, according to a press release from the University of Cambridge.
And scientists have identified an unlikely culprit: inflowing warm water from the ocean’s surface.
“The stability of ice shelves is generally thought to be related to their exposure to warm deep ocean water, but we’ve found that solar heated surface water also plays a crucial role in melting ice shelves,” said lead study author Craig Stewart from New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).
Stewart worked on the project while a PhD student at the University of Cambridge. Scientists from the UK university worked with others from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and NIWA over four years, collecting data from instruments placed 260-meters deep inside the ice shelf.
The effects of solar heated surface water could have huge consequences for global sea levels, according to the BAS.
Smaller ice shelves floating in warmer ocean water are melting 100-200 times faster than large shelves, said the BAS.
“The difference here is the sheer size of Ross Ice Shelf, which is over 100 times larger than the ice shelves we’ve already seen disappear,” said Poul Christoffersen from Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute.
The collapse of the world’s major ice shelves could lead to a sea level rise of several meters or more, the BAS says.
Researchers’ concerns are intensified due to the shape of the Ross Ice Shelf, which is stabilized because it pushes against Ross Island in the key north-west sector, a phenomenon which is known as a pinning point.
It is close to this area that melt rates are increasing, BAS oceanographer Keith Nicholl said, potentially threatening the stability of the ice shelf if the pressure of the Ross Island pinning point is reduced.
“These ice front pinning points help control the flow of a lot of Antarctic ice shelves, and so the study demonstrates another vulnerability of ice shelves to climate change,” Nicholl said.
The full results were published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
