E. Antarctic ice basin ‘may be at risk’ | Climate News Network
▻http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/2014/05/e-antarctic-ice-basin-may-be-at-risk
By Alex Kirby
The East Antarctic ice sheet is thought by most scientists to be stable. But a German team says it has found how part of it could in time melt unstoppably.
LONDON, 4 May – Part of the East Antarctic ice sheet may be less stable than anyone had realised, researchers based in Germany have found.
Writing in Nature Climate Change, two scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) say the melting of quite a small volume of ice on the East Antarctic shore could ultimately trigger a discharge of ice into the ocean which would result in unstoppable sea-level rise for thousands of years ahead. www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2226.html
