A new study has been released showing that melting ice from Antarctica represents the largest uncertainty in future sea-level projections.
Scientists at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) said in the study that discharge of ice into the ocean from East Antarctica's shore could cause an unstoppable rise in sea levels, which could occur for "thousands of years" to come.
The study was published in a recent edition of the journal Nature Climate Change.
The study matches up with the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which predicts Antarctica's total sea level contribution will be up to 16 cm within this century.
"The full sea-level rise would ultimately be up to 80 times bigger than the initial melting of the ice cork," co-author Anders Levermann said in a statement, according to a PIK press release.
The study suggests that East Antarctica may cause a large global sea-level rise of around 300 to 400 cm on timescales beyond a century.
This will take place if Wilkes Basin starts losing ice to warming oceans. Wilkes Basin is the region currently holding the largest volume of marine ice in East Antarctica, according to the study.
"East Antarctica's Wilkes Basin is like a bottle on a slant," lead-author Matthias Mengel, of Potsdam University, said in a statement, according to the PIK press release. "Once uncorked, it empties out."
The researcher's findings are based on computer simulations of the Antarctic ice flow, according to the study. Simulations show that it would take anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 years for the ice from the basin to completely discharge.
Once it is started though, it will slowly continue until the entire basin is empty. Even if climate warming stopped, according to the study.
"This is the underlying issue here. By emitting more and more greenhouse gases we might trigger responses now that we may not be able to stop in the future," Mengel said.
Extensive sea level rise would mean bad news for cities like Mumbai, Tokyo or New York, the scientists said.
Previous research only considered West Antarctica as unstable, but more recent findings show East Antarctica might also be at risk.
East Antarctica holds marine ice more than five times than that of West Antarctica, according to the study.
"Until recently, only West Antarctica was considered unstable, but now we know that its ten times bigger counterpart in the East might also be at risk," says Levermann, who is head of PIK's research area Global Adaptation Strategies.
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