Climate change: Antarctic ice might NOT be adding to sea level rise as much after all

CLIMATE CHANGE is melting the ice caps at almost unprecedented rates. But a new study suggests Antarctic ice cliffs may not be adding to sea level rises as first feared.

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Antarctica: Scientists reveal 'surprising' discovery below ice

The latest research from MIT has discovered even the tallest ice cliffs in Antarctica can support their own weight instead of collapsing catastrophically. Antarctica’s ice sheet is close to twice the area of North America. Its land boundary is supported by immense floating ice shelves extending hundreds of miles out over the bitterly-cold Southern Ocean.

When these walls of ice shelves collapse into the frigid waters, they expose towering cliffs of ice along Antarctica’s edge.

We have to be careful about breathing a sigh of relief

Professor Brent Minchew

It was assumed ice cliffs taller than 300ft (90m) would rapidly collapse under their own weight, contributing to more than 6ft (1.8m) of sea-level rise by 2100 — enough to flood coastal cities around the world.

But MIT researchers have discovered this prediction may be overestimated.

The team reported how ice shelves supporting the cliff would have to break apart “within a matter of hours” for a 90m ice cliff to collapse entirely.



Climate change: The Getz Ice Shelf in West Antarctica (Image: NASA/Jeremy Harbeck)


Climate change: Earth’s tallest ice cliffs are unlikely to collapse catastrophically (Image: Express)

Such ice loss rate has yet to be observed in the modern record.

Fiona Clerc, a MIT graduate student involved in the study, said: “Ice shelves are about a kilometre (0.62 miles) thick, and some are the size of Texas.




It would instead would slowly flow out, resembling “a mountain of cold honey that’s been released from a dam”.

Brent Minchew, assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, said: “The current worst-case scenario of sea-level rise from Antarctica is based on the idea that cliffs higher than 90m would fail catastrophically.




Climate change: A catastrophic collapse would trigger a runaway ice sheet retreat (Image: Express)


Climate change: A photo illustrates the extent of the Larsen B ice shelf collapse (Image: Getty)

The results suggest Earth’s tallest ice cliffs are unlikely to collapse catastrophically and trigger a runaway ice sheet retreat.


Then they captured satellite imagery of the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf — a chunk of ice that broke away from Antarctica, shattering into thousands of icebergs over the span of two weeks.


“So our work sh