Exceeding 2 °C of global warming compared to the pre-industrial period is likely to result in significantly increased deep water temperatures in the Filchner Trough in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica, reports a modelling study lead by researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute and published in Communications Earth & Environment. This warmer water could lead to a significantly increased melting rate of the Filchner Ronne Antarctic ice shelf, resulting in a substantial rise in global sea levels.
Although the tongue of the 79°North Glacier on the north-east coast of Greenland has hardly become any shorter in recent decades, it has become increasingly thinner. A study team from the Alfred Wegener Institute can now explain why. Using a computer model, they were able to show that warm water from the Atlantic flows into the cavern under the glacier tongue and melts the ice there from below.
The Northeast Greenland Ice Stream transports enormous quantities of ice from the island's interior to the sea, thereby also influencing global sea levels. An international research team led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has now determined the age of the icy conveyor belt. According to their findings, it only extended into the interior of Greenland around 2,000 years ago.