Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
05/10/2012
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
Researchers say melting of the Filchner-Ronne platform will accelerate the rise in sea level
Scientists are predicting the demise of another big ice shelf in Antarctica until the end of the century, which should accelerate the rise in sea level.
The platform of Filchner-Ronne ice, adjacent to the Weddell Sea on the eastern side of Antarctica, not recorded until now loss of ice from global warming and most of the observations of melting is centered on the western side of the continent, around Amundsen Sea.
However, new research from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany indicate that the 450 thousand square meters of the ice shelf are under threat.
"According to our calculations, this protective barrier will crumble to the end of this century," said Harmut Hellmer, lead author of the study, published in Nature this week.
The giant ice shelves that float across the seas that surround Antarctica act as a protection from the warmer waters that melt the base of much larger glaciers behind them they are on dry land.
"The ice shelves are like corks of bottles for ice streams behind them," Hellmer said. "They reduce the flow of ice."
"If, however, the ice sheet melt from the bottom, they become so thin that areas become smaller trailing behind the ice starts to move."
Hellmer and his team predict that the melting of the Filchner-Ronne platform could add up to 4.4 mm per year to overall levels of the tides.
According to the latest estimates based on remote sensing data, sea levels rose 1.5 millimeters per year between 2003 and 2010 because of melting glaciers and ice shelves, scientists say.
This addition to an annual increase estimated at 1.7 mm due to the expansion of the oceans, as the water heats up.
The research was funded by the program 'Ice2sea', European Union, developed shortly after the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, noted that the ice sheets as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections on the rising tide levels.
Source: Ig News
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.