Australian Scientist Projects Possible Partial Collapse Of West Antarctic Ice Sheet Within 20 Years

[hatrack]

There's a 'big gorilla hiding the closet' whose collapse could have a dramatic effect on sea levels, according to Australian researchers. Dr Bradley Opdyke, a paleoceanographer from the Australia National University (ANU) believes the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) could partially collapse within 20 years, resulting in a dramatic jump in sea levels.

His talk on glacial cycles and the WAIS was presented earlier this month at the Imagining the real: life on a greenhouse earth conference held in Canberra. "The 900-pound gorilla hiding in the closet is Antarctica. We have evidence that it is not a stable beast," Opdyke says. He says the WAIS is inherently unstable, and the current rate of sea level rise is placing it at risk.

"It is pinned on the spines of a few mountains, with ice sheets draped off them," Opdyke says. "If sea level rise unpins these sheets, it is plausible that there will be dramatic ice collapse in the West Antarctic."

According to Opdyke, data from deep sea sediment cores suggests that Antarctic ice sheets have collapsed several times in the last 75,000 years. Some warming periods were probably only decades long, yet may have corresponded to a sea level rise of many metres. "When ice melts, it tends to melt in a hurry," Opdyke says.

EDIT

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/25/2283071.htm?site=science&topic=latest

[Mabus]

1. Not to mention the effect on the salinity of the oceans

and the corresponding change in weather patterns. When those things collapse so will a lot of other things. Talk about a domino effect.

[XemaSab]

2. 20 years?

:rofl:

[robertpaulsen]

3. My thoughts exactly.

Try cutting that big gorilla in half at least.

[Zachstar]

4. Exactly what I was thinking. 20 years for what? Climate Collapse?

McDonalds buying DQ? Wallmart going to the moon?

They told us sweating and scared that we may only have 100 years before we lose the ice up north. That was not that long ago.

Now there is a good chance we will lose it by 2010.

Keep that in mind folks.