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More Antarctic Warming
East Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. It makes up two-thirds of the continent, is home to the South Pole, and has vast ice sheets that have been around for tens of millions of years and are nearly three miles thick in places. Temperatures there hover around 67 degrees below zero. In 2010, a few spots on East Antarctica’s polar plateau reached a record-breaking 144 degrees below zero.
But almost unbelievably, parts of the East Antarctic seem to be
melting.
Scientists are seeing worrying signs of ice loss in the East
Antarctic. Glaciers are starting to move
more quickly and are dumping their ice into the Southern Ocean. Satellite images show the fast-moving
ice. The biggest glacier – the Totten
Glacier – alone contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by over 12 feet.
The Antarctic as a whole contains about 90% of the planet’s ice. In theory, if it all melted, it would raise
global sea levels by an average of 200 feet.
The growing concerns about eastern Antarctica are not that its
interior plateau will soon start to melt.
It is still extremely cold there and should stay that way for a long
time. But its edges, which are in
contact with warming ocean waters, are the real worry. As the region’s ice shelves, which float atop
the Southern Ocean, erode, the vast glaciers behind them could rapidly
accelerate their slide into the sea.
Today, satellites show huge glaciers moving rapidly toward the coast,
with wide rivers of ice sometimes moving several miles a year. In the face of rapid change and limited data,
it is difficult to predict what the Antarctic will do in the future. But it doesn’t look good.
**********
Web Links
Polar Warning: Even Antarctica’s Coldest Region Is Starting to Melt
Photo, posted January 3, 2013, courtesy of Christopher Michel via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
View all episodes
By Randy Simon
4.7
1515 ratings
East Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. It makes up two-thirds of the continent, is home to the South Pole, and has vast ice sheets that have been around for tens of millions of years and are nearly three miles thick in places. Temperatures there hover around 67 degrees below zero. In 2010, a few spots on East Antarctica’s polar plateau reached a record-breaking 144 degrees below zero.
But almost unbelievably, parts of the East Antarctic seem to be
melting.
Scientists are seeing worrying signs of ice loss in the East
Antarctic. Glaciers are starting to move
more quickly and are dumping their ice into the Southern Ocean. Satellite images show the fast-moving
ice. The biggest glacier – the Totten
Glacier – alone contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by over 12 feet.
The Antarctic as a whole contains about 90% of the planet’s ice. In theory, if it all melted, it would raise
global sea levels by an average of 200 feet.
The growing concerns about eastern Antarctica are not that its
interior plateau will soon start to melt.
It is still extremely cold there and should stay that way for a long
time. But its edges, which are in
contact with warming ocean waters, are the real worry. As the region’s ice shelves, which float atop
the Southern Ocean, erode, the vast glaciers behind them could rapidly
accelerate their slide into the sea.
Today, satellites show huge glaciers moving rapidly toward the coast,
with wide rivers of ice sometimes moving several miles a year. In the face of rapid change and limited data,
it is difficult to predict what the Antarctic will do in the future. But it doesn’t look good.
**********
Web Links
Polar Warning: Even Antarctica’s Coldest Region Is Starting to Melt
Photo, posted January 3, 2013, courtesy of Christopher Michel via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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