"These ice shelves may be more vulnerable to ocean warming than previously assumed. Deep channel-like grooves beneath the ice are trapping swirling eddies of relatively warm ocean water. That warm water melts ice beneath the surface 10 times faster than normal, threatening the structural integrity of the entire ice shelves."
"The ice sheet currently holds enough fresh water to raise sea levels by a staggering 58 meters (190 feet), threatening millions of people with flooding. If the Antarctic shelves were significantly weakened or even started to collapse, it would release the gigatonnes of ice currently being held back in the ice sheet."
"Ice shelves wedge themselves between the headland and small hills on the seafloor, acting like a break that slows the glaciers' relentless surge into the sea. The floating part is providing a backstress like a cork in a wine bottle - if you pull it, all the wine comes out."
Antarctic ice shelves, which cover 75 percent of the continent's coastline, act as critical barriers holding back inland glaciers. Norwegian researchers discovered that deep channel-like grooves beneath these shelves trap swirling eddies of warm ocean water, accelerating subsurface ice melting tenfold beyond normal rates. This threatens the structural integrity of the ice shelves. If significantly weakened or collapsed, the shelves would release vast quantities of trapped ice, potentially raising global sea levels by 58 meters. Ice shelves function as critical brakes on glacier flow into the ocean. Scientists warn that sea level rise will likely exceed previous climate model predictions, though they don't expect complete ice sheet collapse.
Read at Mail Online
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