Just a Nudge Could Collapse West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Raise Sea Levels 3 Meters
Freezing and melting of the Arctic and Antarctic regions along with global weather patterns are volatile. Researchers prepare models to predict when a large West Antarctic Ice Sheet will break away, eventually causing global sea levels to rise by as much as 3 meters. “Just a few decades of melting leads to ‘thousands of years of ice motion,’” writes Carolyn Gramling for Science Magazine. “More than 150 million people globally live within just 1 meter of the sea.” The models include many variables including force of winds, ocean circulation, and how icebergs break apart. Also taken into account is how warming sea water seeps around and underneath the polar ice. Researchers acknowledge that long-term forecasting is not precise, and the many consequences anticipated from climate change could develop more slowly or rapidly than models may predict. – YaleGlobal
Just a Nudge Could Collapse West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Raise Sea Levels 3 Meters
Scientific models strive to pinpoint when giant ice sheets will break away and cause rising sea levels – in decades, centuries or millennia
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Read the report “Antarctic Sea Ice Reaches New Record Maximum” from NASA: “Sea ice surrounding Antarctica reached a new record high extent this year, covering more of the southern oceans than it has since scientists began a long-term satellite record to map sea ice extent in the late 1970s. The upward trend in the Antarctic, however, is only about a third of the magnitude of the rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.”
http://news.sciencemag.org/climate/2015/11/just-nudge-could-collapse-west-antarc...
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