This is the East Antarctic coastline. Icebergs are highlighted by the sunlight, and the open ocean appears black. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, NASA and other research organizations have discovered two seafloor troughs that could allow warm ocean water to reach the base of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica’s largest and most rapidly thinning glacier. The discovery likely explains the glacier’s extreme thinning and raises concern about its impact on sea level rise. Captions and Photo source: NASA
Excerpts;
Current rates of climate change could trigger instability in a major Antarctic glacier, ultimately leading to more than 2m of sea-level rise.
This is the conclusion of a new study looking at the future of Totten Glacier, a significant glacier in Antarctica. Totten Glacier drains one of the world’s largest areas of ice, on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS).
By studying the history of Totten’s advances and retreats, researchers have discovered that if climate change continues unabated, the glacier could cross a critical threshold within the next century, entering an irreversible period of very rapid retreat…
Read Full Article, Science Daily
East Antarctica Melting Could be Explained by 2 Oceanic Gateways, Science Daily (03-17-2015)
Researchers have discovered two seafloor gateways that could allow warm ocean water to reach the base of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica’s largest and most rapidly thinning glacier. The discovery probably explains the glacier’s extreme thinning and raises concerns about how it will affect sea level rise…
Study sees new threat to East Antarctic ice, NASA (03-16-2015)
Abrupt Sea Level Rise Looms As Increasingly Realistic Threat, Yale E360 (05-11-2016)
Ninety-nine percent of the planet’s freshwater ice is locked up in the Antarctic and Greenland ice caps. Now, a growing number of studies are raising the possibility that as those ice sheets melt, sea levels could rise by six feet this century, and far higher in the next, flooding many of the world’s populated coastal areas…
