Ice shelves are floating extensions of glaciers. If Greenland’s second largest ice shelf breaks up, it may not recover unless Earth’s future climate cools considerably.
Ice shelves are floating extensions of glaciers. If Greenland’s second largest ice shelf breaks up, it may not recover unless Earth’s future climate cools considerably. This is the result of a new study, published in Nature Communication.
A team of scientists from Stockholm University and University of California Irvine investigated whether the Petermann Ice Shelf in northern Greenland could recover from a future breakup due to climate change. They used a sophisticated computer model to simulate the potential recovery of the ice shelf.
“Even if Earth’s climate stopped warming, it would be difficult to rebuild this ice shelf once it has fallen apart”, says Henning Åkesson, who led the study at Stockholm University.
“If Petermann’s ice shelf is lost, we would have to go ‘back in time’ towards a cooler climate reminiscent of the period before the industrial revolution to regrow Petermann”, Åkesson says.
Read more at Stockholm University
Photo Credit: 12019 via Pixabay
