Antarctica Ice Sheet Starting to Collapse - Sea-level Rise is Unstoppable, NASA Says

Global warming has hit us again, new study by NASA shows that huge west Antarctica ice sheet is collapsing into sea, and this west Antarctica ice sheet holds enough water to increase the sea level up to 2 feet. But this also acts as an acceleration process and help melt the rest of the ice sheet and that will increase the sea level by another 10 to 13 feet – that is 3 to 4 meters.

Glaciers in Antarctica

Scientists from University of Washington says this full collapse will happen within few centuries, and the process has already begun. A NASA’s study with the help of 40 years of ground and satellite data shows that this process of gradual melting is happening much faster than scientists predicted before. This process is now like a chain of domino's and reached the critical threshold.

NASA says that there are 3 major evidence for this glaciers’ collapse –

1. The change in the glaciers’’ flow speed.
2. How much these glaciers float on the sea water.
3. The slope of the terrain these glaciers are floating over and its depth below sea level.

Researchers believe that shortest time period for the full collapse takes 200 years or so, but longest is more than 1000 years. But this is heavily depends on our global heating rate, but however long it might take, the collapse is inevitable.

Read more about this from NASA’s study

Source: University of Washington Blog