Melting of Totten Glacier due to global warming could raise sea levels by three meters

Scientists have issued yet another warning about global warming. There is a massive glacier named Totten Glacier and its melting as a result of global warming could send the Antarctica Ocean levels rise by nearly three meters.
A study has predicted that unless action is taken to reduce the current rate of climate change, the Totten Glacier could cross a point of no return within the next century. And - this would be catastrophic. It would lead to it retreating inland by up to 300-Km and, simultaneously, releasing vast amounts of water. Global sea levels could rise by as much as 2.9 metres and the whole process might take several hundred years.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 18 May 2016.

The study states that evidence that is being thrown up paints a bleak picture of the future because East Antarctica appears to be much more vulnerable to a warming environment than presumed. The Totten Glacier is losing ice. This is attributed to warm ocean water and this loss has the potential to also push the glacier back to an unstable place. This glacier is only one outlet for the ice of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, but its impact could be immense.
Incidentally, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is the largest mass of ice on Earth and any small changes could lead to big influence globally. The Antarctic Ice Sheet covers a land area of almost 5.4 million square miles at the South Pole. It contains about 61% of all the fresh water on Earth and is divided into two western and eastern sections by a range of mountains. The Eastern Antarctic Ice Sheet is believed to be relatively stable compared with the much smaller West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
But Totten Glacier is losing substantial amounts of ice and, in case it withdraws another 100-150-Km inland, its front will be sitting on an unstable bed which could trigger a period of rapid retreat.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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If all of East Antarctic Ice Sheet melted it would increase sea levels by 50-meters

#climatechange #globalwarming #EastAntarctica #TottenGlacier Warning has been given that melting of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet due to global warming will increase the level of oceans by as much as 50-meters and this is alarming. This has been revealed by another major study that has highlighted the alarming potential impact of climate change on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet which is also known as the vast "sleeping giant" of the frozen continent.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 27 November 2015.

The EAIS makes up much of Antarctica and has long been regarded by scientists to be much more stable when compared with the smaller, 25 million square kilometre West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Satellite measurements have estimated that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet was losing more than 150 cubic kilometres of ice each year.
Satellite observations have also indicated that certain parts of the EAIS were currently thinning in response to a warming ocean. A recent Australian expedition reached the typically inaccessible Totten Glacier to gain some of the first direct evidence.
A conclusion can be drawn that the wider ice sheet's contribution to future sea level rise could be much greater than anticipated and, in the event of it melting, the EAIS would contribute an equivalent of around 50 metres of sea level rise.
The study was carried out by a New Zealand-led team - they studied rocks at different elevations beside the East Antarctic sheet, the research team came to the conclusion that a period of rapid glacier thinning occurred in the recent geological past, and has persisted for several centuries.
Till now, most of the research had focused on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Therefore, these observations from East Antarctica become all the more significant.

Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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