Antarctica’s Disappearing Ice Shelves
Some 40% of Antarctica's ice shelves have shrunk since the late 1990s, new research finds, sounding a warning bell for how the continent is reshaping itself in a warming world. A study published in the journal Science Advances on Thursday finds that out of the continent’s 162 ice shelves, 72 of them lost mass—primarily on the western edge of the continent, where the ocean water is warmer. Ice shelves are huge pieces of ice that extend out over the ocean, serving as a buttress for the ice sheets on land; without the protective ice shelves, it’s possible that Antarctica’s massive glaciers could melt more quickly into the ocean and accelerate sea level rise. While losing ice during calving is part of the natural life cycle of an ice shelf, scientists say the pattern of rapid ice loss of some of the shelves—including the Thwaites Glacier, which has shrunk by 70% since 1997—is troubling. “The surprising result to me was just how many ice shelves are deteriorating that substantially and continuously,” lead author Benjamin Davison told the Washington Post. “Lots of ice shelves, not just the big ones, are steadily losing mass over time with no sign of recovery.”
(AP, Washington Post $, Reuters, The Guardian)
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