LONDON, Nov.1 — A new study in Nature warns that rising ocean temperatures could cause about 60 percent of Antarctica’s major ice shelves to lose long-term stability by the year 2300, significantly increasing the risk of global sea-level rise.
Ice shelves are vast floating extensions of Antarctica’s ice sheet that act as natural barriers, slowing the flow of land ice into the ocean.
When these shelves weaken or collapse, they accelerate ice loss from the continent, one of the primary drivers of rising sea levels.
Researchers assessed the stability of the shelves by analyzing the combined effects of atmospheric and oceanic melting.
“Loss of stability” occurs when melting and iceberg calving consistently outpace the replenishment of ice from the continent, leading to long-term thinning and growing vulnerability to breakup.
Under a high-emission scenario, the study found that up to 38 of Antarctica’s 64 major ice shelves could become unstable by 2300.
However, most shelves would remain intact if global warming is limited to below 2 degrees Celsius. If these vulnerable ice shelves were to collapse, the regions of the ice sheet they currently hold back could eventually add up to 10 meters to global sea levels, the study said.
The authors urged swift and sustained cuts to greenhouse gas emissions to help safeguard the world’s coastlines.
They also cautioned that their projections may be conservative, noting that some ice shelves could destabilize even sooner under the combined stresses of warming and structural weakening. (Xinhua)
