WASHINGTON — The global sea level will rise only about 10 feet if the West Antarctic ice sheet collapses.
While that may not sound so great to residents of coastal cities like New York or Los Angeles, it’s only about half of the previously predicted rise.
Researchers led by Jonathan L. Bamber of the University of Bristol in Britain report their recalculation of the hazard in today’s edition of the journal Science.
However, they add, the maximum increase is expected along the East and West coasts of the United States, where the water could rise as much as 25 percent more than in other regions.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet can be unstable, and has long concerned researchers who fear it could collapse as a result of global warming.
Previous studies had estimated that failure of the ice sheet, causing it to slide into the ocean, would raise global sea levels by 5 to 6 meters, or 16 to 19 feet.
But Bamber’s team calculated that the entire sheet would not collapse. Parts of it would remain grounded on the continent.
Thus, they said, sea-level rise would be only about 3 meters, or just under 10 feet.
How fast this might happen was unclear, but an earlier study suggested the melting could take 500 years, which would mean a sea level rise of about a quarter-inch a year.
The melting would also redistribute the balance of mass between water and land on the planet, potentially affecting Earth’s rotation and causing water to build up along the North American coasts and in the Indian Ocean.
The research was supported by the United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council and the University of Colorado Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science.
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Explorers put research on ice
TORONTO — British explorers in northern Canada to measure the thickness of floating Arctic sea ice ended their expedition short of reaching the North Pole due to an early- summer ice melt, the team said Thursday.
Explorers Pen Hadow, Ann Daniel and photographer Martin Hartley had planned a three-month journey to the North Pole but ended their arduous trek Wednesday, approximately 304 miles from their destination, Hadow said.
The trio stopped after 73 days, during which they measured the thickness of floating sea ice to provide data to scientists studying the impact of global warming in the region.
“This year, the summer melt came a little early,” Hadow said during a webcast conference from Resolute Bay in northern Canada. “We would have rather reached the Pole if we could have, but we’ve always regarded (getting there) as the cherry on the cake.”
He said the group’s goal was to cover as much distance as possible and gather as much information as possible.
“Along the way we realized (getting to) the Pole was not achievable, so we sacrificed it very easily,” he said.
The data will be used to help scientists further understand climate change by getting a better picture of when sea ice in the North Pole will melt completely and not refreeze seasonally.
The Associated Press
