Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet after local destabilization of the Amundsen Basin.

ABSTRACT: The future evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet represents the largest uncertainty in sea-level projections of this and upcoming centuries. Recently, satellite observations and high-resolution simulations have suggested the initiation of an ice-sheet instability in the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica, caused by the last decades' enhanced basal ice-shelf melting. Whether this localized destabilization will yield a full discharge of marine ice from West Antarctica, associated with a global sea-level rise of more than 3 m, or whether the ice loss is limited by ice dynamics and topographic features, is unclear. Here we show that in the Parallel Ice Sheet Model, a local destabilization causes a complete disintegration of the marine ice in West Antarctica. In our simulations, at 5-km hori

SUBMITTER: Feldmann J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4655561 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature