A basin of ice in East Antarctica is especially vulnerable if climate change contributes to warming ocean waters, which could in turn melt a small frozen rim keeping the Wilkes Basin in place, researchers found in a new study.
According to the report published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change, the ice contained in the Wilkes Basin would raise sea levels by 10 to 13 feet if the frozen stopper keeping it in place melts away, Reuters reported.
Lead study author Matthias Mengel of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research explained in a statement, "East Antarctica's Wilkes Basin is like a bottle on a slant. Once uncorked, it empties out."
The new findings are among the first to examine the potential effects of climate change for Antarctica, which is around the size of the U.S. and Mexico put together.
"I would not be surprised if this (basin) is more vulnerable than West Antarctica," study co-author Anders Levermann told Reuters.
East Antarctica accounts for the larger portion of the continent, the whole of which scientists say would raise sea levels by 188 feet if it ever melted, and has historically been considered secure.
The findings indicate that warming ocean temperatures could melt the key ice rim in 200 years or so, after which gravity would take East Antarctica's ice out to sea over the next 5,000 to 10,000 years. If the "ice plug" keeping the Wilkes Basin in place melts due to climate change, the resulting ice flow will be unstoppable, Levermann told Reuters.
Recent reports from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have predicted disastrous effects from global warming that include rising sea levels, diminished food sources and extreme weather.
Around 200 governments have agreed to work out a U.N. deal by the close of next year to limit greenhouse emissions from human sources.
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