Melting of polar ice caps heralds the approach of Doomsday - sea levels coiuld rise by 10ft

Scottish researchers have indicated that if the West Antarctic ice sheet starts to melt as a result of rise in global temperatures, the sea levels would rise and swamp coastal towns and cities around the world. The researchers claim that loss of ice in West Antarctica caused by a warming ocean could increase sea levels by as much as 10ft (3 metres).
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 3 February 2016.

This study is the first of its kind by which researchers were able to gauge how levels of ice covering the land have changed over hundreds of thousands of years. For this, they studied the peaks protruding through ice in the Ellsworth Mountains, on the Atlantic flank of Antarctica. They assessed changes on slopes at various heights on the mountainside, which indicate levels previously reached by the ice sheet. Moreover, they mapped the distribution of boulders on the mountainside, that had been deposited by melting glaciers.
Subsequently, they took the help of chemical technology - known as exposure dating - to determine how long the rocks had been exposed to the atmosphere, and their age.
The findings indicated that during previous warm periods, a substantial amount of ice would have been lost from the West Antarctic ice sheet by ocean melting, but it would not have melted entirely. From this, it concluded that ice would have been lost from areas below sea level, but not on upland areas.
As per the study, parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet would have existed continuously for at least 1.4 million years but, once global temperatures continues to rise, it would lead to the oceans becoming warmer. Thereby, there would be a substantial amount of loss of ice from the sheet.

Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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