Ice shelf the size of New York City collapses in previously stable East Antarctica
An ice shelf the scale of New York Metropolis has collapsed in East Antarctica, an space lengthy considered steady and never hit a lot by local weather change, involved scientists stated Friday.
The collapse, captured by satellite tv for pc photos, marked the primary time in human historical past that the frigid area had an ice shelf collapse. It occurred initially of a freakish heat spell final week when temperatures soared greater than 40 C hotter than regular in some spots of East Antarctica.
Satellite tv for pc images present the world had been shrinking quickly the final couple of years, and now scientists say they surprise if they’ve been overestimating East Antarctica’s stability and resistance to international warming that has been melting ice quickly on the smaller western facet and the weak peninsula.
The ice shelf, about 1,200 sq. kilometres holding within the Conger and Glenzer glaciers from the hotter water, collapsed between March 14 and 16, stated ice scientist Catherine Walker of the Woods Gap Oceanographic Institute. She stated scientists have by no means seen this occur on this a part of the continent and that makes it worrisome.
Full collapse of East Antarctica’s Conger Ice Shelf (~1200 sq. km) ~March 15, seen in combo of <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Landsat?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#Landsat</a> and <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/MODIS?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#MODIS</a> imagery. Potential it hit its tipping level following the <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Antarctic?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#Antarctic</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/AtmosphericRiver?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#AtmosphericRiver</a> and heatwave too? <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CongerIceShelf?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#CongerIceShelf</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Antarctica?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#Antarctica</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/helenafricker?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>@helenafricker</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/icy_pete?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>@icy_pete</a> <a href=”https://t.co/7dP5d6isvd”>https://t.co/7dP5d6isvd</a> <a href=”https://t.co/1wzmuOwdQn”>pic.twitter.com/1wzmuOwdQn</a>
—@CapComCatWalk
“The Glenzer Conger ice shelf presumably had been there for hundreds of years and it is not ever going to be there once more,” stated College of Minnesota ice scientist Peter Neff.
The problem is not the quantity of ice misplaced on this collapse, Neff and Walker stated. It is negligible. Nevertheless it’s extra concerning the the place it occurred.
Neff stated he worries that earlier assumptions about East Antarctica’s stability might not be so proper. And that is essential as a result of the water frozen in East Antarctica if it melted — and that is a millennia-long course of if not longer — would increase seas throughout the globe greater than 50 metres. It is greater than 5 instances the ice within the extra weak West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the place scientists have concentrated a lot of their analysis.
Scientists had been seeing the ice shelf shrink a bit because the Nineteen Seventies, Neff stated. Then in 2020, the shelf’s ice loss sped as much as shedding about half of itself each month or so, Walker stated.
“We in all probability are seeing the results of plenty of very long time elevated ocean warming there,” Walker stated. “it is simply been melting and melting.”
After which final week’s warming “in all probability is one thing like, , the final straw on the camel’s again.”
