Antarctic ice streams are no bubbling brook

Bad news from down south

Posted by Joseph Romm (Guest Contributor) at 11:31 AM on 27 Apr 2007

Read more about: climate | climate change impacts | Antarctica

Scientific and observational data from Antarctica are driving home the message that we have entered a period of consequences.

Most recently, scientists have discovered ice streams hiding bigger reservoirs of water in West Antarctica. The evidence has "major implications for glacial melt rates and associated sea-level rises" and the rate of warming.

Equally frightening is that the ice streams feed into the Ross Ice Shelf, a major southern ice shelf whose melting would indicate "the end of the road" according to one scientist.

In 1999, scientists began to observe pools of water on top of the Larsen Ice Shelf (green shaded area near upper left peninsula), which soon after broke apart and shocked the world. At that time, scientists expressed concern were the warming to continue and move southward, particularly to the Ross Ice Shelf.

Now it has. Whether the discovery of the ice streams, water reservoirs, and lakes follows any climate model seems dwarfed by the rapid progression of direct observation succeeding intuition. Trouble is gushing forth.

For story: Antarctic ice streams are no bubbling brook
7 Comments | Post a Comment

Fear This!

They discovered ice...next to water!

Head for the hills...the End is Neigh.

Texeme.Construct(function(x)=Participation(x))

by jabailo at 11:55 AM on 27 Apr 2007

Jabailo

Your interesting/uninteresting comment ratio is converging on zero.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 12:11 PM on 27 Apr 2007

bio-d, hasn't he already reached zero???

And he obviously doesn't grasp the significance of the water in question.

by Chris Schults at 12:48 PM on 27 Apr 2007
[ Parent ]

A smidgen too much sea . . . . .

Can anyone say how many feet of sea-level rise nature needs to achieve
to put a stop to the function of international freight docks
which are the key facility in the chain of enterprises
that cause the pollution driving the rise of sea-levels ?

Regards

Bill

by Billhook at 1:14 PM on 27 Apr 2007

"the end of the road" ?

Okay, I've read the article which ends with:
"If the Ross and Ronne shelves broke up, it would be the end of the road."

What's he mean "the end of the road" ?

Is this where they are saying that once a major ice shelf is gone, the nearby Antartic ice sheet will flow off the land en masse to float in the sea? And not wait to be melted in place?

I remember a few years ago some Brit scientist speculating about this happening.

at a remove

by ataremove at 1:26 PM on 27 Apr 2007

I don't understand this

Is there a rate of change over historical with this water, or is this just a discovery?

by Energy745 at 1:49 PM on 27 Apr 2007

Answers

At a remove, those ice shelves buttress the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is grounded below sea level. With the shelves gone, it would be vulnerable to breaking up via undermining, cracking apart and floating off, which would probably be a much quicker process than if it was above sea level and had to slide off. The bulk of the Antarctic ice is contained in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, the base of which is above sea level.

Energy745, all of this subglacial water was discovered quite recently, so it's hard to know what the trend is. The significance is that its presence means that there is a potential new mechanism for very rapid collapse of the WAIS. The extent to which that mechanism will come into play is not yet known.

by Steve Bloom at 5:15 AM on 28 Apr 2007

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