West Antarctic ice melting at rate of 250 cubic km / year
Members of the British Antarctic Survey have discovered that a huge sheet of ice, resting on land in the area of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), is disintegrating and flowing into the sea.
The sea level is rising world-wide by 0.2 mm / year as a result and it will raise the sea level by about 3 metres if it completely disintegrates. As recently as four years ago the ice sheet was thought to be completely stable, and unlikely to become unstable until some time between 2100 and the next 1000 years. As well as putting the obvious places, such as Bangladesh, under water, a rise in sea level of this magnitude will affect much of coastal Europe.
February 8th, 2005 at 02:02:26
I live in Miami Florida and am very concerned about rising sea levels. Is there any agrement as to the projected rate of rising sea levels in the northern latitudes over the next ten years? We live in an area that is only 7 feet above sea level but it is the highest point in Miami. It is actually the top of an ancient coral reef that was 5 feet underwater as few as 14,000 years ago.
Thank you,
Michael
February 8th, 2005 at 04:02:28
I haven’t seen anything about such short-term changes – I think even if the melting accelerates a lot, you should still be OK, regarding the water level, in the next ten years. (But if the Gulf Stream stops flowing, which might happen as a result of the sea’s salt concentration changing, we could see some fairly large changes in climate everywhere).
But you might want to also take a look at this posting. There’s no saying definately if or when an eruption will occur, but the devastation world wide is likely to exceed the recent damage in Asia by quite a margin.