Of the various possible effects of a warming earth, one of the most potentially problematic would be the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which would raise sea levels globally by about ten feet. A new good-news-bad-news (mostly good) study, however, finds that a particular natural process is helping us out. See, ice is heavy, especially trillions of tons of it, and it literally presses the ground down. When it melts, the ground rebounds. In fact, the more northerly parts of North America and Europe are still rebounding from the last ice age. This happens on the scale of about a centimeter per year, or less, but the bedrock under Antarctica is rebounding much more rapidly, about 4 centimeters per year. This rebound could slow down the rate of melting, potentially preventing (or at least delaying) catastrophic collapse.
The bad news is that satellite readings of gravity thought to represent ice actually represented rock, meaning scientists have underestimated the amount of ice already lost by about ten percent, which throws a big wrench into models used to predict future ice loss. These models will need to be recalibrated with the new data in order to develop a better picture of what to expect from Antarctic ice.
The bad news is that satellite readings of gravity thought to represent ice actually represented rock, meaning scientists have underestimated the amount of ice already lost by about ten percent, which throws a big wrench into models used to predict future ice loss. These models will need to be recalibrated with the new data in order to develop a better picture of what to expect from Antarctic ice.