MARCH 16, 2015
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, NASA and other research organizations have discovered two seafloor troughs that could allow warm ocean water to reach the base of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica’s largest and most rapidly thinning glacier. The discovery likely explains the glacier’s extreme thinning and raises concern about its impact on sea level rise.
The result, published in the journal Nature Geoscience today, March 16, has global implications because the ice flowing through Totten Glacier alone is equivalent to the entire volume of the more widely studied West Antarctic Ice Sheet. If Totten Glacier were to collapse completely, global sea levels would rise by at least 11 feet (3.3 meters). As in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, complete collapse of Totten Glacier may take centuries, although the timing of retreat in both places is the subject of intensive research.
For more information on the new study, see:
To learn more about Operation IceBridge and ICECAP, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/
and
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/icecap/
The paper is available at:
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo2388.html