Scientists have found that the bedrock underneath the West Antarctica Ice Sheet has the potential to rebound in response to melting faster than thought, which could act to stabilize the ice.
If emissions continue at their current pace, Antarctica will cross a threshold into runaway sea rise when today’s kids are raising families. Pulling CO2 out of the air later won’t stop the ice loss.
Thwaites Glacier’s ice shelf appears to be splintering, and scientists fear it could give way in the next few years. A polar scientist takes us on a tour under the ice to explain the forces at work.
Researchers find that ice around Antarctica shrank quickly last decade, raising concerns over this buttress against melting land-based ice and future sea-level rise.
Liquid water below the ice determines how fast an ice stream flows. As the ice sheet gets thinner, more of that salty groundwater could rise.
Last summer one of Antarctica’s floating ice shelves calved an iceberg the size of Delaware – but scientists say other less dramatic changes reveal more about how and why Antarctica is changing.
Studies show that the Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the planet.
Two centuries after it was first sighted by Russian explorers, Antarctica is a key site for studying the future of Earth’s climate – and for global scientific cooperation.
Climate change is making ocean levels rise in two ways. It’s a problem that will endure even after the world stabilizes and slashes greenhouse gas pollution.
Microphones on the seafloor recorded life under the Antarctic ice for two years – inadvertently catching seal trills and chirps that are above the range of human hearing. Could they be for navigation?
