Most of the Earth’s fresh water is locked in the ice that covers Antarctica.
Most of the Earth’s fresh water is locked in the ice that covers Antarctica. As the ocean and atmosphere grow warmer, that ice is melting at a startling pace with sea levels and global currents changing in response. To understand the potential implications, researchers need to know just how fast the ice is disappearing, and what is driving it back.
The West Antarctic ice sheet, an unstable expanse bordering the Amundsen Sea, is one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in climate projections. Records indicate that it has been steadily shrinking since the 1940s, but key details are missing. Using environmental data gathered from ice samples, tree rings and corals, University of Washington researchers tailored a climate model to Antarctica and ran simulations to understand how changing weather patterns dictate ice melt.
The results, published on Sept. 10 in Nature Geoscience, were surprising. For years, researchers have hypothesized that westerly winds were ferrying warm water toward the ice sheet, accelerating ice melt. The new study flips the existing narrative on its head, or rather on its side, pointing toward winds from the north instead.
Read More at: University of Washington
Penguins walking across sea ice by a large iceberg in front of Thwaites Ice Shelf, a large, unstable mass of ice that extends from the West Antarctic ice sheet into the sea.Peter Neff
