Waves cause Antarctic shelf disintegration

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

A group of researchers have determined that storm-driven ocean swells have caused catastrophic disintegration of Antarctic ice shelves in recent decades, according to a recent paper published in Nature. Apparently reduced sea ice coverage since the late 1980s has exposed ice shelves to the swells, causing the shelves to flex and break. This, in turn is leading to runaway collapse of large areas of ice shelf through a process that, while related to climate change, is not directly a result of rising temperatures. As some areas of ice shelf collapse, more areas of ice shelf become exposed to wave action.

According to a report by the Australian Antarctic Division, Dr. Luke Bennetts, a co-author of the research paper, has commented that the ice shelves perform a critical role in slowing the movement of land-based glaciers into the ocean. And, unlike the loss of sea ice, the loss of land ice will cause sea levels to rise.

“Ice shelves fringe about three quarters of the Antarctic coast and they play a crucially important role in moderating sea level rise by buttressing and slowing the movement of glacial ice from the interior of the continent to the ocean,” Bennetts said.

- ALAN BAILEY