Antarctica's Ice Shelves Could Be Melting Faster Than We Thought!

A new model was developed by researchers from Caltech and JPL suggested that Antarctica’s ice shelves may be melting faster than usual which could eventually contribute to a more rapid sea level rise!

This model which the researchers created stimulates how the rapid flowing freshwater which was melted from the ice shelves could trap dense ocean warm water and cause it to melt even more!

Ice shelves are outcroppings of the Antarctic ice sheet, this is found where the ice juts out from land and floats on the top of the ocean. The shelves which are very thick act as a very protective buffer for the mainland ice. This keeps the entire ice sheet from flowing into the ocean! If so, it would eventually lead to a global sea level rise! However, global warming and climate change are making the ice shelves melt at a faster rate!

“If this mechanism that we’ve been studying is active in the real world, it may mean that ice shelf melt rates are 20 to 40 percent higher than the predictions in global climate models, which typically cannot simulate these strong currents near the Antarctic coast,” Andy Thompson(Professor of environmental science and engineering) says.

We have to stop climate change immodestly to stop global sea level rise to make our beloved earth a better place to live!

Author: Sri Nihal Tammana

Source: California Institute of Technology