Antarctic Meltdown a Millenniums-long Process

A 5-million-year simulation of how the West Antarctic Ice Sheet responds to warming waters shows a slow pace of resulting sea-level rise. Overall, thousands of years are required to completely melt the region's ice and raise seas 15 feet or more, according to the researchers, publishing in the journal Nature. Visit http://www.nytimes.com/dotearth for more.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• global
• warming
• antarctica
• poles
• polar
• science
• environment

[waltczak]

your focus should be on the north pole, as it has dramatically advanced and retreated through thousands of years! We only escaped the little ice age about 160 years ago, it was from 1350 to 1850.

[waltczak]

@audience2 in itself, yes. But, read my comment again, as there are many mechanisms supporting each other in allowing more ice to melt every year at the north pole- breaking the ice for over 100 years has increased the surface area dramatically in areas, all of these things contribute, and, make the suns rays more effective in melting ice; those mechanisms are catalysts!

[audience2]

@waltczak The heat from nuclear powered submarines is completely negligible compared to the heat from the Sun. 

[waltczak]

Antarcita Ice is much more stable, as it is on top of a continent. The Polar Ice floats on water; additionally, we have been breaking the ice with ice-breakers, and, producing much heat with nuclear-powered submarines, and, the absorbtion of the sun's rays in the soot(SVOCs) deposited on the ice through global distilization...the North Pole is what retreats and advances in such an extreme fashion.

[JohnMalcolm]

You will notice that as the ice melts the coastline does not change. How could this be? Where did the water go?

In any case, do we want to cause a catastrophe for those who will be here in 4000 years?

[shotysnipes24]

yea how much presision??

[urumqilik]

how much persision can u give to this?

[MASTERDJOSWE]

???