Warming ocean layers could melt polar ice faster than thought

From ANI

London, July 4: A new study has warned that as the ocean's subsurface layers warm, it will melt the underwater portions of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets faster than expected.

University of Arizona scientists revealed that the subsurface ocean layers surrounding the polar ice sheets would warm substantially as global warming progresses.

The fast-paced melting would resultantly increase the sea level more than already projected.

The startling findings indicate the subsurface ocean along the Greenland coast could increase as much as 3.6 F (2 C) by 2100.

The study, based on 19 state-of-the-art climate models, proposes a new mechanism by which global warming will accelerate the melting of the great ice sheets during this century and the next.

"To my knowledge, this study is the first to quantify and compare future ocean warming around the Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets using an ensemble of models," said lead author Jianjun Yin, a UA assistant professor of geosciences.

The researchers found that a mid-level increase in greenhouse gases would cause the ocean layer, about 650 to 1,650 feet (200 to 500 meters) below the surface to warm by about 1.8 F (1 C) by the year 2100. t is estimated that the layer along the Greenland coast would warm twice as much, but the one along Antarctica would warm less, only 0.9 F (0.5 C).

Co-author Jonathan T. Overpeck explains: "this does mean that both Greenland and Antarctica are probably going to melt faster than the scientific community previously thought."

The study appears in the journal Nature Geoscience.


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