This week I ran across a story about Antarctic ice sheets and how a collapse of one of the sheets in the Western Antarctic could result in rapidly rising sea levels. While this story is about a year old, it was new to me and provided more context about how the ice sheets are melting much more rapidly than expected. When the ice sheet collapses, by itself it won’t raise sea level much since a lot of the ice is floating in the water, although some is perched on rock ledges. But the collapse will act like popping a cork out of a bottle of champagne, since all the ice that is on land above the ice sheet will then be able to flow quickly down the slope of Antarctica into the water, which will raise the sea level as it melts. How do they know? By looking at sediments deposited in the ocean floor from water coming off the ice sheets. You can read more in Science here.
