The largest glacier in East Antarctica containing ice equivalent to a six-metre (20-foot) rise in global sea levels is melting due to warm ocean water, Australian scientists said Monday.
The 120-kilometre long Totten Glacier, which is more than 30 kilometres wide, had been thought to be in an area untouched by warmer currents. But a just-returned voyage to the frozen region found the waters around the glacier warmer than expected.
“We knew that the glacier was thinning from the satellite data, and we didn’t know why,” the voyage’s chief scientist Steve Rintoul said.
He said until recently, the East Antarctica ice sheet had been thought of as being surrounded by cold waters and therefore very stable.
But the voyage found that waters around the glacier were some 1.5º Celsius warmer than other areas visited on the same trip during the southern hemisphere summer.
“The fact that warm water can reach this glacier is a sign that East Antarctica is potentially more vulnerable to changes in the ocean driven by climate change than we used to think,” he said. — AFP
The 120-kilometre long Totten Glacier, which is more than 30 kilometres wide, had been thought to be in an area untouched by warmer currents. But a just-returned voyage to the frozen region found the waters around the glacier warmer than expected.
“We knew that the glacier was thinning from the satellite data, and we didn’t know why,” the voyage’s chief scientist Steve Rintoul said.
He said until recently, the East Antarctica ice sheet had been thought of as being surrounded by cold waters and therefore very stable.
But the voyage found that waters around the glacier were some 1.5º Celsius warmer than other areas visited on the same trip during the southern hemisphere summer.
“The fact that warm water can reach this glacier is a sign that East Antarctica is potentially more vulnerable to changes in the ocean driven by climate change than we used to think,” he said. — AFP
Source - The Hindu
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