Most Of Antarctic Ice Sheet Stable Despite Global Warming, New Study Confirms

The central core of the East Antarctic ice sheet should remain stable even if the West Antarctic ice sheet melts, a new study has found.

The findings are significant because some researchers predict the West Antarctic ice sheet could melt quickly due to global warming.

If the East Antarctic ice sheet, which is 10 times larger than the western ice sheet, were to melt, it would cause sea levels worldwide to rise almost 200 feet (60 meters).

The study, conducted by researchers based at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, was led by Dr. Kathy Licht, an associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences in the School of Science at IUPUI.

Dr. Licht led a research team into the Transarctic Mountains in search of physical evidence that would verify whether the long-standing idea is still true: That the East Antarctic ice sheet is stable.

For a long time, the East Antarctic ice sheet has been considered relatively stable because most of the ice sheet was thought to rest on bedrock above sea level, making it less susceptible to changes in climate.

However, recent studies have shown widespread water beneath it and higher melt potential from encroaching ocean water.

By contrast, the West Antarctic ice sheet is a marine-based ice sheet that is mostly grounded below sea level, which makes it much more susceptible to changes in sea level and variations in ocean temperature.

‘Some people have recently found that the East Antarctic ice sheet isn’t as stable as once thought, particularly near some parts of the coast,’ Dr. Licht said.

Recent studies have found that the perimeter of the East Antarctic ice sheet is potentially more sensitive and that the ice may have retreated and advanced much more dynamically than was thought, Dr. Licht said.

‘We believed this was a good time to look to the interior of the ice sheet,’ Dr. Licht said.

‘We didn’t really know what had happened there.

After their expedition, the research team found evidence confirming the stability of the East Antarctic ice sheet at an altitude of 6,200 feet, about 400 miles from the South Pole at the edge of what’s called the polar plateau, a flat, high surface of the ice sheet covering much of East Antarctica.

H/T The GWPF

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