A 300km ice block suddenly melted in the Antarctic Peninsula

Using data from satellites including the European Space Agency's (ESA) CryoSat-2 satellite, researchers at the University of Bristol have found ice melting in the southern region of The Antarctic Peninsula (Southern Antarctic Peninsula) has a sudden increase.

A huge amount of ice suddenly melted in the Antarctic Peninsula

Observations and calculations show that before 2009 this region was considered relatively stable and there was almost no change. Soon after, however, many glaciers along a 750-kilometer coastline suddenly melted at about 60 cubic kilometers (55 trillion tons of water) each year. It is estimated that these glaciers now add about 300 km of water to the ocean - enough water to fill 35,000 102-story Empire State buildings in the United States .

The team also said that the loss of ice is large enough to cause minor changes in the Earth's gravitational field and make the Antarctic Peninsula region the second largest to contribute to the rise in water levels. Antarctic sea. The discovery was published in the Science journal.

Also according to calculations, the melting of these Antarctic glaciers now contributes to an increase in sea level of about 0.16 mm per year. This number is quite small and it will not immediately affect our lives. However, the problem that we need to consider is that this phenomenon happened quite suddenly and in a region that has so far been considered quite stable. Is it a sign of some major change in this region or greater than that of the Earth we don't know yet?

Bert Wouters, who led the study, said: ' It is clear that around 2009, the decline in the thickness of the ice sheets and the melting of the glaciers crossed the critical threshold, thereby creating This unusual phenomenon ' . It is known that some glaciers are currently declining altitude at about 4 meters per year.

Antarctic Peninsula (part covered by red square)

Explaining the reason for this rapid melting, based on data from the Antarctic climate model, the team thinks that this phenomenon cannot be explained by the change in snowfall or gas temperature. book . Instead, the cause is most likely due to an increase in ocean temperatures in recent years, resulting from fossil fuel emissions .

In addition, another factor that could be impacted is that the westerly wind, the type of wind that surrounds Antarctica, has become stronger in recent decades due to the effects of warming. post -ozone depletion and depletion (a reduction in ozone in the stratosphere).

However, Wouters also said 'To determine the cause of the change, more data is needed to collect'.

It is known that the Antarctic peninsula contains enough ice to make the sea level rise to 35 cm . However, this is of course not possible. Currently, the research team cannot answer the question of how much more ice will continue to melt and how much more sea level will rise. Wouters said that in order to have accurate predictions, the specific knowledge of the geometry of the local ice sheets or the seabed topography, the thickness of the ice sheets and the movement speed of the glaciers is very important.