Collapse of various Antarctic Ice Shelves

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  Collapse of various Antarctic Ice Shelves

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• The story: Antarctic ice shelves are at risk of collapsing into the ocean if the current rate of global warming continues, warns a research paper. The study said that nearly one third (34%) of Antarctica’s ice shelves could collapse by the end of the 21st century if the world warms by 4 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial level. This will put at risk about 1,90,000 square miles of Antarctic ice. The absence of ice shelves would accelerate the collapse of huge glaciers into the ocean, which could result in a catastrophic rise of sea water level.
• Good news: If humans can manage to keep the warming at 2-degree Celsius rise than the pre-industrial level, then half of the 34% ice shelves at risk could be saved. Containing the rise under 1.5 degree Celsius would result in an even smaller impacted region in the Antarctica. Till date, the world has already warmed by around 1 degree Celsius from the pre-industrial period.
• What are ice shelves: These are large floating platforms of ice that are in contact with ocean water and these shelves are formed where a glacier ends. Ice shelves act like a barrier between ocean water and the glaciers. Collapsing of the ice shelves into the ocean would not immediately result in sea water level rise. But their removal would accelerate the collapse of huge glaciers into the ocean, which could result in a catastrophic rise of sea water level.

1. Ice shelves are important buffers preventing glaciers on land from flowing freely into the ocean and contributing to sea-level rise. When they collapse, it's like a giant cork being removed from a bottle, allowing unimaginable amounts of water from glaciers to pour into the sea.
2. Under normal conditions, the ice shelves usually melt during summer. The water from this melting of ice trickles down through the cracks in the ice and later get frozen again. But, when the melting rate goes higher, then water pools on the surface of the shelves.
3. The melted ice accumulates over the surface of the ice shelves and fractures them and the shelves can ‘collapse spectacularly’. 

• Learnings: In past studies, scientists and researchers have modelled the future behaviour of the ice shelves at a larger scale—the whole of Antarctica. This missed finer and minute details of individual ice shelves, at least the way they are behaving in the warming world. The new study concentrates on modelling ice melting in different scenarios with more minute details and precisions that were not known previously.
• Data: Researchers have identified that Larsen C, the largest remaining ice shelf in Antarctica, along with other three, would be particularly threatened by the warming climate. The other three ice shelves incorporated in the study are Wilkins, Pine Island and Shackleton. Larsen C already split in 2017 and formed the enormous iceberg, A68. The world is presently on track for something between 3 to 3.5 C (5.4 to 6.3 F). That's not to say that 4 C (7.2 F) is out of the question. The indication is that the world, where climate change is proceeding to a point where one third of Antarctic ice shelves would be put at risk of collapsing, would involve major failures of containing greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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