A new document suggests that the East Antarctic ice sheet may not be as stable as we thought. Looking at ancient melting, the study finds evidence that this part of Antarctica experienced melting 400,000 years ago when the world was warmer 1.8 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 2 degrees Celsius). Enough melted ice could have happened here to raise the sea about 10 to 13 feet.
Posted in Nature on Wednesday, these findings Add to the growing body of literature on the historical loss of ice in East Antarctica. It seems that scientists today should, in fact, be concerned about how global warming will affect the region that has been considered stable.
In 2017, a team of researchers. discovered Evidence based on sediment data that suggested that the region’s glaciers had experienced forward and reverse cycles. This challenged the idea that this part of Antarctica had remained frozen for millions of years. In 2019, researchers found that the region is already watching some ice loss, even if less compared to the destruction that occurs in West Antarctica, where warm seawater is eating up the floating ice shelves that reinforce the land ice.
Now, this new document further raises the alarm. Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of Washington and the University of Kansas evaluated three subglacial sediment samples to see what minerals have historically accumulated under the ice. The team specifically looked at the Wilkes Basin, a large swath of ice that covers an area roughly the size of France.
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They were able to date the opal and calcite found in their samples, taken near the Pensacola Mountains and the Elephant Moraine in eastern Antarctica, using a specific uranium isotope that accumulates where rock and water meet for prolonged periods of weather. Floating ice can trap these isotopes in the sediment record, but the open ocean can expel them.
The information contained in those samples paints a clear picture: East Antarctica has not been stable for as long as researchers initially thought. Approximately 400,000 years ago, samples indicate that ice receded into the basin and contributed to the massive rise in sea level observed during that period.
“We were expecting to find isotopic results that would suggest that the ice within the Wilkes East Antarctic Basin ice sheet was stable for a much longer duration, perhaps more than a million years,” wrote author Terry Blackburn, professor. Assistant at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told Earther in an email.
The document would have benefited from having more samples taken through the ice cap, but the team had to work with what was available. It is not easy to test one of the most remote locations in the world. These findings give us clearer expectations of what might come for the region, although more research is needed, including observing how current ice is evolving. The planet is currently warming 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) above pre-industrial levels and is on its way to warming further, as it did 400,000 years ago. While researchers have become increasingly concerned, parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet could face a unstoppable collapseThe new findings show that part of the eastern part of the continent could also face problems.
“[These findings] they do support the idea that future sea levels in response to warming will be much higher than today, “Blackburn said.
That puts coastal cities already deal with chronic flooding In greater danger. However, humans could avoid catastrophe if leaders finally moved to end fossil fuel consumption once and for all.
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