A Dartmouth-led study by more than 50 climate scientists worldwide provides the first clear projection of how carbon emissions may drive the loss of a large portion of Antarctica’s ice sheet over the next 300 years.
A Dartmouth-led study by more than 50 climate scientists worldwide provides the first clear projection of how carbon emissions may drive the loss of a large portion of Antarctica’s ice sheet over the next 300 years.
The future of Antarctica’s glaciers after 2100 becomes uncertain when looking at existing ice-sheet models individually, the researchers report in the journal Earth’s Future. They combined data from 16 ice-sheet models and found that, collectively, the projections agree that ice loss from Antarctica will increase, but gradually, through the 21st century, even under current carbon emissions.
But that consistency falls off a cliff after 2100, the researchers found. The models predict that under current emissions, ice in most of Antarctica’s western basins begins to retreat rapidly. By 2200, the melting glaciers could increase global sea levels by as much as 5.5 feet. Some of the team’s numerical experiments projected a near-total collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet by 2300.
Read more at Dartmouth College
Image: Associate Professor of Engineering Hélène Seroussi is the first author of the study in Earth’s Future. (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)
