West Antarctic Ice Sheet
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Introduction
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet has the greatest potential to cause a sudden and unexpected SLR. What makes this area so dangerous and unpredictable is that most of rests on land that is actually below sea level. This means that every that under the right/wrong circumstances parts of it could break off from the rest of the Antarctic IceSheet and slide into the ocean.
Ice Sheet Melt - Unlike Greenland there is no history of this Ice Sheet experiencing surface melting and any observed melting has been restricted to it’s outflow glaciers; until just last year, that is. In stories that ran just this May, NASA announced that they had evidence “that extensive areas of snow melted in west Antarctica in January 2005 in response to warm temperatures.”
NASA’s QuikScat satellite detected extensive areas of snowmelt, shown in yellow and red, in west Antarctica in January 2005. (Credit: NASA)
Here is a map showing Antarctica’s key glaciers, with links to pictures of each area. I have included pictures of the area of main concern in the Amundsen Bay, the Pine Island Area; home of the Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers.
Resources:
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