14 DAY TRIAL // An analysis that covered more than four decades of satellite data collected over the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) indicates that this critical portion of the Southern Continent is breaking apart at the seams, with potentially devastating consequences.
The WAIS represents a massive section of the Antarctic, and losing it could significantly raise global sea levels. Ice loss rates at the South Pole are already massive, and the loss of this ice field could accelerate them further, Science Blog reports.
The edges of the ice field look like a broken mirror in satellite imagery, primarily due to the vast number of cracks that developed as average temperatures in the area increased. This fragmentation pattern is extremely different from the standard, cyclical variations ice sheets usually display.
“As a glacier goes afloat, becoming an ice shelf, its flow is resisted partly by the margins, which are the bay walls or the seams where two glaciers merge. An accelerating glacier can tear away from its margins, creating rifts that negate the margins’ resistance to ice flow and causing additional acceleration,” expert Ginny Catania explains.