Warm ocean is eroding West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Warm ocean is eroding West Antarctic Ice Sheet

[1] Satellite radar measurements show that ice shelves in Pine Island Bay have thinned by up to 5.5 m yr 1 over the past decade. The pattern of shelf thinning mirrors that of their grounded tributaries the Pine Island, Thwaites and Smith glaciers and ocean currents on average 0.5 C warmer than freezing appear to be the source. The synchronised imbalance of the inland glaciers is the result of r...

West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative

The ocean's influence upon and response to Antarctic ice sheet changes is considered in relation to sea level rise over recent and future decades. Assuming present-day ice fronts are in approximate equilibrium, a preliminary budget for the ice sheet is estimated from accumulation vs. iceberg calving and the basal melting that occurs beneath floating ice shelves. Iceberg calving is derived from ...

Bacteria beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet.

Subglacial environments, particularly those that lie beneath polar ice sheets, are beginning to be recognized as an important part of Earth's biosphere. However, except for indirect indications of microbial assemblages in subglacial Lake Vostok, Antarctica, no sub-ice sheet environments have been shown to support microbial ecosystems. Here we report 16S rRNA gene and isolate diversity in sedime...

Antarctic Ice Sheet fertilises the Southern Ocean

Southern Ocean (SO) marine primary productivity (PP) is strongly influenced by the availability of iron in surface waters, which is thought to exert a significant control upon atmospheric CO2 concentrations on glacial/interglacial timescales. The zone bordering the Antarctic Ice Sheet exhibits high PP and seasonal plankton blooms in response to light and variations in iron availability. The sou...

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Sea Level Rise