An unprecedented phenomenon is undermining the solidity of arctic glaciers. The warmer ocean temperatures are causing melting at the bottom, something that has never before been observed before, at least not in the way and amount that it is doing so now.
In the past most of the melting occurred at the edges or above. But melting at the bottom threatens the glaciers in a much more insidious way.
This can cause massive iceberg to break off their platforms, and an entire ice shelf could be lost to sea.
This also changes whatever previsions have been outlined by science. In a sense, this finding forces a re-writing of the climate change effect on the oceans.
However, the melt is uneven. In Antarctica, for example, only one third of the ice shelves are undergoing basal melt. The melting furthermore is distributed unevenly throughout the world.
Antarctica is also losing ice at half the rate of the other ice shelves. But in some places, in Antarctica, the ice is melting faster than other locations, so that the entire continent is changing in ways that are yet to be understood.
Antarctica holds about 60% of the world's entire freshwater load inside its ice sheet.
It is very important to understand how these new findings affects the study of the warming ocean and its impact on rising sea levels.
Source : France 24/ 6.14.13
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