A deeper insight into East Antarctic melting: reason to worry?
As a previous post discussed, whilst most ice-melt in Antarctica takes place in the west and on the Antarctic Peninsula, the situation in East Antarctic isn’t as stable as once thought.
New concerns have been raised regarding East Antarctica’s ability to ‘reshape coastlines around the world‘ through its contribution to sea-levels with increasing melting. New maps tracking ice velocity and elevation changes of eastern glaciers put together by NASA are the reasons for these rising fears. On the eastern side of the continent, the Totten glacier garners the most scientific interest: it is the largest ‘moving mass of ice‘ in East Antarctica. NASA’s new maps show, however, that the ice-loss taking place in some of the smaller glaciers to the west and to the east of Totten necessitates more interest.
Glaciers in Vincennes Bay appear to be in particular trouble, having lost 9 feet in height since 2008. The above map reveals that whilst melting in the west and especially around the Antarctic Peninsula is far more significant, melting in the east, particularly around the Totten glacier area, is also widespread and systematic in nature.
- The glaciers in both areas are drains for the largest subglacial basins on the eastern side of the continent
- Both basins are below sea-level, allowing warmer water to get further inland to speed up melting. (We can remember from an earlier post that one factor behind the faster melting in the west is due to the bases of Western Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula being marine-based and so in constant contact with the warming currents in the Southern Ocean.)
Understandings of the topography and bathymetry of the bedrock and ocean floor around the Wilkes Land and Vincennes Bay area are still limited. This is in part linked to the ingrained belief amongst the scientific community of the area being stead-fast and stable. There’s the possibility that if the bed-rock is smooth and sloped downward, ice-loss will take place at a far faster rate than if it was littered with ridges and sloped upward. To predict more concretely the potential for these glaciers to contribute significantly to sea-level rise, a lot more work must be done.
What is for sure? The frozen continent is melting. Antarctica is changing. The rate of that change is what we need to figure out…
Cover photo by Cassie Matias on futuretravel.today