{"id":15260,"date":"2024-02-08T12:47:34","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T12:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/08\/a-2000-foot-long-ice-core-suggests-potential-for-sudden-and-rapid-antarctic-melting\/"},"modified":"2024-02-08T12:47:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T12:47:34","slug":"a-2000-foot-long-ice-core-suggests-potential-for-sudden-and-rapid-antarctic-melting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/08\/a-2000-foot-long-ice-core-suggests-potential-for-sudden-and-rapid-antarctic-melting\/","title":{"rendered":"A 2,000-foot-long ice core suggests potential for sudden and rapid Antarctic melting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Evidence from a 2,000-foot-long ice core reveals that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shrank suddenly and dramatically around 8,000 years ago, according to new research \u2014 providing an alarming insight into how quickly Antarctic ice could melt and send sea levels soaring. <\/p>\n

Part of the ice sheet thinned by 450 meters (1,476 feet) \u2014 a height greater than the Empire State Building \u2014 over a period of just 200 years at the end of the last Ice Age, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature Geoscience. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first direct evidence that shows such a rapid loss of ice anywhere in Antarctica, according to the study\u2019s authors. <\/p>\n

While scientists knew the ice sheet was bigger at the end of the last Ice Age than today, much less was <\/strong>known about when exactly that shrinking happened, said Eric Wolff, a glaciologist at the University of Cambridge in the UK and a study author. <\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s clear the ice sheet retreated and thinned very rapidly in the past, Wolff said, the danger is that it could begin again. \u201cIf it does start to retreat, it really will do it very fast,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

That could have catastrophic consequences for global sea level rise. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds enough water to raise sea levels by about 5 meters \u2013 more than 16 feet \u2014 which would cause devastating flooding in coastal towns and cities around the world. <\/p>\n

The study is \u201can excellent piece of detective work\u201d about a major part of the Antarctic ice sheet, said Ted Scambos, a\u00a0glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder. <\/p>\n

Ice cores are historical archives of the Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Made up of layers of ice that <\/strong>formed as snow fell and compacted <\/strong>over thousands of years, they contain bubbles of ancient air as well as contaminants that provide a record of environmental <\/strong>changes over millennia. <\/p>\n

The ice core analyzed in the study was drilled from Skytrain Ice Rise located at the edge of the ice sheet, near the point where the ice starts to float and become part of the Ronne Ice Shelf. <\/p>\n

Scientists extracted it in 2019, in a painstaking process that involved drilling constantly for 40 days, pulling up a thin cylinder of ice a few feet at a time. They then cut the core into sections, packed them in insulated boxes kept at minus 20 degrees Celsius, and sent them to the UK via plane then ship. <\/p>\n

Once in the UK, the scientists measured the ice core\u2019s water isotopes, which provide information on temperature in the past. Warmer temperatures indicate lower-lying ice \u2014 think of it like a mountain, Wolff said, the higher up you go the colder it gets. <\/p>\n

They also measured the pressure of trapped air bubbles in the ice. Lower-lying and thinner ice contains higher pressure air bubbles. <\/p>\n

It was a surprise when the data revealed just how quickly the ice had thinned at the end of the last Ice Age, Wolff said. \u201cWe actually spent a lot of time checking that we hadn\u2019t made a mistake with the analysis.\u201d <\/p>\n

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is particularly vulnerable to climate change, because the land under it is below sea level and slopes downward. When warm water gets underneath, it can melt very fast. \u201cIt can have a runaway process, and that\u2019s evidently what happened 8,000 years ago,\u201d Wolff said. <\/p>\n

The crucial thing \u201cis not to test it too far,\u201d Wolff said, and that means tackling climate change. \u201cWe can avoid these tipping points still,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The new data will help improve the accuracy of the models scientists use to predict how the ice sheet will respond to future global heating, the report says. <\/p>\n

David Thornalley, an ocean and climate scientist at University College London, said the study\u2019s data was \u201cstriking.\u201d He cautioned that as the study looked at a period 8,000 years ago, when climate conditions were different, the results aren\u2019t a direct example of what could happen today. But, he added, they are still able to offer an \u201cinsight into the way that ice sheets can collapse.\u201d <\/p>\n

The study comes as scientists continue to sound the alarm about what is happening to the Earth\u2019s most isolated continent. <\/p>\n

For example, the Thwaites Glacier, also in West Antarctica, is melting rapidly. A 2022 study said the Thwaites \u2014 dubbed the Doomsday Glacier for the catastrophic impact its collapse would have on sea level rise \u2014 was hanging on \u201cby its fingernails\u201d as the planet warms. <\/p>\n

This new study adds to these concerns, Scambos said. \u201c(It) shows that the very same processes we are seeing, just beginning now in areas like Thwaites Glacier, have played out before in similar areas of Antarctica and indeed, the pace of ice loss was equal to our worst fears about a runaway ice loss.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evidence from a 2,000-foot-long ice core reveals that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shrank suddenly and dramatically around 8,000 years ago, according to new research \u2014 providing an alarming insight into how quickly Antarctic ice could melt and send sea levels soaring. Part of the ice sheet thinned by 450 meters (1,476 feet) \u2014 a <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}