A study on an Antarctic ice shelf suggests that the West Antarctic ice sheet may be more resilient to complete collapse due to climate change than previously thought. Analysis of an ice core indicated that the Ronne ice shelf persisted during a warm period over 120,000 years ago, offering hope that the ice sheet might not entirely melt. However, uncertainties remain, and sea level rise from melting ice is still a major concern.
A major ice shelf in Antarctica appears to have survived a period of hot temperatures more than 120,000 years ago, indicating that the West Antarctic ice sheet may not be as vulnerable as we thought to complete collapse caused by climate change – a worst-case situation that could raise sea levels by metres. But large uncertainties remain.at the University of Cambridge, UK. “We didn’t get the worst-case scenario.
Wolff and his colleagues looked at the Ronne ice shelf, a large section of the ice sheet that extends into the ocean, to see how it behaved between 117,000 and 126,000 years ago. During that time, which was part of theTo determine the extent of the Ronne ice shelf during that warm period, the researchers measured concentrations of sea salt in an ice core drilled about 650 kilometres away from the shelf’s edge.
“It implies there was not a complete deglaciation of western Antarctica, but it doesn’t give us enough information to relax,” says, didn’t melt. In fact, the water isotope record in the core suggests they did, says Wolff. The ice core the researchers used also didn’t cover the warmest period of the last interglacial.
ANTARCTICA ICE SHELF CLIMATE CHANGE SEA LEVEL RISE GLOBAL WARMING
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