Antarctica Is Melting From Below

[KansDem]

Nature: Antarctica Is Melting From Below, Which ‘May Already Have Triggered A Period of Unstable Glacier Retreat’

We knew that “deep ocean heat is rapidly melting Antarctic ice.” And we knew that these warm ocean currents melting Antarctica were so intense that, seawater appears to “boil on the surface like a kettle on the stove.”

By Climate Guest Blogger on Apr 27, 2012 at 12:29 pm

We also knew that the the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS) is inherently far less stable than the Greenland ice sheet because most of it is grounded far below sea level (see below). And JPL has told us that polar ice sheet mass loss is speeding up and is on pace for 1 foot sea level rise by 2050.

Now a new study using NASA satellite data finds the WAIS in particular is “being eaten away from below by warm water” as the AP put it, which “suggests that future sea levels could rise faster than many scientists have been predicting.”



--more--
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/04/27/471922/nature-antarctica-melting-from-below-may-already-have-triggered-a-period-of-unstable-glacier-retreat/

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[monmouth]

2. The fires from hell are burning big and bright...n/t

[pscot]

3. A foot of sea rise by 2050?

That would be a lot faster than anyone expected.