WEST ANTARCTICA’S RISING BEDROCK COULD DELAY THE COLLAPSE OF THE ICE SHEETS

In a span of twenty-five years, the continent of Antarctica has already lost three trillion tons of solid ice.

Truly sobering news, especially with all the weather changes happening around the world. Most of the ice that melted belonged to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which has tripled its loss rate as the study went on. If nothing is going to prevent more ice from melting, then the seas around the world will rise about three meters in the centuries to come.

As the ice melts, the crust becomes lighter. The bedrock underneath the ice sheets starts to rise to about eight meters in the coming century. This rise protects the ice from the warm waters that melt them from below. Rick Aster, Colorado State University’s seismologist and author of the latest study, commented that the rising bedrock may delay the melting of the ice sheets and prevent the rise of the waters for a few more decades.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06/rising-bedrock-below-west-antarctica-could-delay-catastrophic-ice-sheet-collapse