Antarctica’s frozen stability is showing signs of unraveling under the pressure of global warming, with scientists observing increased surface melting, glacier acceleration and shrinking sea ice similar to trends seen in Greenland, according to media reports.
Research published in Nature Geoscience shows that warming at the South Pole is triggering significant ice loss in a region once thought to be shielded from rapid climate change, said the Ars Technica website.
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“We thought it was just going to take ages for any kind of climate impacts to be seen in Antarctica,” it quoted Ruth Mottram, lead author of the study and ice researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute. “And that’s really not true.”
Antarctica’s ice sheet spans 5.4 million square miles and contains enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by 190 feet (58 meters) if fully melted.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet alone holds ice capable of raising sea levels by more than 10 feet.
The collapse of Larsen B Ice Shelf in 2002, following record-warm summers, marked a dramatic turning point.
“We just couldn’t believe the pace at which it happened,” said Helen Amanda Fricker of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
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Ice loss has quadrupled since the 1990s, with weakened ice shelves failing to restrain outlet glaciers.
“At some point, there’s no stopping it anymore,” Fricker said.
Mottram pointed to an extraordinary 2022 heatwave that reached deep into the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which was previously seen as the most stable region, driven by intense atmospheric rivers.
Satellite observations now show that warming ocean currents are breaching the continent’s protective circumpolar current, bringing heat to the base of ice shelves.
Eric Rignot, Earth system science professor at the University of California, Irvine, said Greenland’s experience helps predict Antarctic changes, noting: “There is no new physics in Greenland that does not apply to Antarctica and vice versa.”
Though Antarctica is currently warming at a slightly lower rate than the global average, Mottram emphasized that the continent is no longer isolated.
“What happens there will affect the rest of the global climate system,” she said.
She said that the research underscores the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“The only way we’re going to get out of this problem is bringing our greenhouse gases down as much as possible, as soon as possible,” she added.
With additional input by GVS US and Intl desk