Scientists have calculated that the most rapidly changing region of Antarctica – the bay of the Amundsen Sea – lost more than 3 thousand billion tons of ice over a 25-year period.
This was established by scientists from the University of Leeds (UK), according to EurekAlert.
If all the lost ice were accumulated on London, then its height would be more than 2 km – or 7.4 times more than the height of the 72-story London skyscraper The Shard. If it had covered Mangettan, it would have been 61 km high – or 137 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other, the article notes.
20 large glaciers form an inlet of the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica, more than four times the size of Great Britain. They play a key role in shaping the level of the world’s oceans.
There is so much water in snow and ice that if it all drained into the sea, the level of the world’s oceans could rise by more than one meter, the article notes.
The researchers calculated the “mass balance” of the coast of Amundsen Bay – the increasing balance between the mass of snow and ice due to snowfall and the mass lost during breaks, when icebergs form at the edge of the glacier and drift into the sea.
If melting occurs faster than ice is replaced by snowfall, the glacier loses its total mass and contributes to global sea level rise. Similarly, when snowfall decreases, the glacier can lose overall mass and contribute to sea level rise, the article notes.
The results showed:
- between 1996 and 2021, West Antarctica experienced a net ice loss of 3,331 billion tons, resulting in a global sea level rise of more than 9 mm;
- changes in ocean temperature and currents were probably the most important factors behind the loss of ice.
The 20 glaciers in West Antarctica have lost a lot of ice over the past quarter of a century, and there are no signs that this process will be reversed in the near future, although there were periods when the rate of mass loss decreased somewhat, the researchers note.
If ocean levels rise significantly in the coming years, then places around the world will be subject to extreme flooding, the researchers say.
Source: EurekAlert
The glaciers of Antarctica have already been actively melting in the recent past.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.