Drilling into Antarctica’s Past
The ice sheets covering Antarctica contain enough water to raise sea levels by 57 meters—enough to cause flooding in low-lying coastal communities around the globe.
A recent study published in Nature Geoscience showed that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet went through a period of rapid melting around 8,000 years ago—and questioned whether this turn of events in the past could be a sign of what’s to come in the future.
The melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise the sea level by about 5 meters, said Eric Wolff, a study coauthor and climatologist at the University of Cambridge. And it sits on bedrock that is below sea level, making it particularly vulnerable to a warming ocean, he explained. As sea levels rise, water could seep underneath the ice sheet and unground it, causing it to retreat. The new research indicated that that’s probably happened before.
To study glacial conditions, researchers drill into the ice and withdraw cylindrical ice cores. The layers of glacial ice revealed by the cores form as snow is compacted. When snow falls, pockets of air get trapped by subsequent flurries, preserving the atmosphere from when they were buried in nearly pristine condition.
