Antarctic warming speed-up alarms researchers

(Climate News Network, 4 Mar 2021) The world’s largest reservoir of snow and ice could be melting faster than ever. Two new studies highlight Antarctic warming.

Antarctic warming is accelerating: at least one of the southern continent’s ice shelves has been melting faster than ever. The polar summer of 2019-20 set a new record for temperatures above freezing point over the George VI ice shelf off the Antarctic Peninsula.

The finding is ominous: the ice shelves form a natural buttress that slows the rate of glacier flow from the continental bedrock. The faster the glaciers flow into the sea, the higher the hazard of sea level rise.

And a second study confirms that this is already happening in West Antarctica: researchers looked at 25 years of satellite observation of 14 glaciers in the Getz sector to find that meltwater is flowing into the Amundsen Sea ever faster. Between 1994 and 2018, these glaciers lost 315 billion tonnes of ice, enough to raise global sea levels by almost 1mm.

Melting rates in Antarctica have been a source of alarm for years. The latest studies confirm the picture of continuing melt.

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Climate News Network, 4 Mar 2021: Antarctic warming speed-up alarms researchers