Ross Ice Shelf - World's Largest - Melting At Rate 10X Global Average For Ice Shelves [View all]

[hatrack]

The world’s largest ice shelf is melting 10 times faster than the average ice shelf due to warming surface water, according to a new report.

Researchers studying data taken at Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf over the last four years reported on Monday that warming ocean water that’s heated by the sun is causing the rapid melting that intensifies risks of long-term rising sea levels. The findings, which were discovered in part by researchers at the University of Cambridge, were published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

“The stability of ice shelves is generally thought to be related to their exposure to warm deep ocean water, but we’ve found that solar heated surface water also plays a crucial role in melting ice shelves,” the report’s leading author, Craig Stewart from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, said in a release. Stewart conducted the work while a Ph.D. student at the University of Cambridge.

The findings may be particularly bad news, as the melting ice shelf, which is about the size of France, stabilizes the West Antarctic ice sheet and blocks ice that flows into it from some of the world’s largest glaciers. Should it weaken, it could significantly increase the risk of instability in surrounding glaciers, including those more than 500 miles away, and lead to rising sea levels of several meters or more, the researchers warned.

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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ross-ice-shelf-melting-solar-heated-water_n_5cc87812e4b07c9a4cea2019