Satellites recorded the process of the Conger ice sheet gradually shrinking, then breaking apart on March 16, in the context of unusually warm East Antarctica.
Satellite images show that the Conger Ice Sheet, located in East Antarctica and close to the Shackleton Ice Shelf, actually collapsed on March 15. The Conger Ice Sheet is about 1,200 square kilometers, only slightly smaller than Los Angeles and a third larger than Larsen B, which collapsed in 2002.
Catherine Walker, a planetary and Earth scientist who works at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and NASA, shared on social media images captured by the Landsat and MODIS satellites. They show that the Conger Ice Sheet gradually narrowed until March 14. From March 16th, it was completely broken.
“The Conger ice sheet was there and it suddenly collapsed,” said ice expert Andrew Mackintosh, head of the Department of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University (Australia).
Ice sheets play an important role in preventing the flow of ice from the continents to the ocean. “If they collapse, then the flow of ice from the continents will accelerate, leading to sea level rise,” Mackintosh said.
Antarctica has also recently experienced an unusual heat wave. At Concordia station, the joint Italian-French base in East Antarctica, temperatures hit around -12 degrees Celsius in mid-March, 40 degrees Celsius warmer than average.
Most likely this heat wave was caused by rivers in the atmosphere, large flows of warm air encircling the area. It is difficult to determine whether the high temperatures in Antarctica will cause the ice sheet to collapse. However, scientists need to examine how the unusual temperatures have changed the environment around Conger. “We need to find out more about how this warm period affected melting in East Antarctica,” Mackintosh said.
Antarctica research mainly focuses on West Antarctica because it is much more accessible. It has also been the focus of large-scale expeditions from the US and UK Antarctic research institutes. However, March’s unusual warming put East Antarctica in the spotlight, pointing to the need for scientists to better understand East Antarctica and its response to undetected human-caused climate change.
Kam Thao (Based on clean)
at Blogtuan.info – Source: vnexpress.net – Read the original article here
