Top Posts
FG says desertification has disrupted livelihoods of over...
UN agency says deadly floods show need for...
NOA sensitises on climate change impact
UN climate change director calls for urgent action...
Environmental activist dismisses CoP meetings on climate change...
Trump administration says it won’t publish major climate...
Climate change: Stakeholders demand action on land use,...
Report: Climate change threatening global data centres
IMF warns climate change may deepen Nigeria’s debt...
Report: Death toll of European Heatwave 3 times...
EcoNai Newsroom
  • Newsround
  • Nigeria
  • Africa
  • World
World

Climate Change: Norwegian seafloor holds clue to Antarctic melting

by Matthew Atungwu April 6, 2023
written by Matthew Atungwu April 6, 2023
671

New research has revealed that the melting ice sheet in Antarctica may recede far more quickly than previously anticipated.

The proof comes in the form of seafloor traces off the coast of Norway that show the retreat of a vanishing European ice sheet thousands of years ago.

The glaciers in Antarctica that are receding the fastest are now seen to do so at a rate of up to 30 metres per day.

However, if they accelerated, the additional meltwater would have significant effects on sea level rises all throughout the world.

Since the 1990s, the surface of the world’s oceans has already risen by almost 1 centimetre due to ice loss from Antarctica brought on by climate change.

The maximum retreat with the Norwegian sheet, according to the researchers, was more than 600m per day.

Read Also: oil-giants-accuse-us-govt-of-flip-flopping-on-climate-change-cases

“This is something we could see if we continue with the upper estimates for temperature rise,” explained Dr Christine Batchelor from Newcastle University, UK.

“Although, worryingly, when we did the equations to think about what would be needed to instigate such retreat in Antarctica, we actually found there are places where you could get similar pulses of withdrawal even under the basal melt rates we know are happening at the moment,”

Dr Batchelor and colleagues report their research in this week’s edition of the journal Nature.

The team has been looking at a great swathe of seafloor off the central Norwegian coast. Twenty thousand years ago, this area was witness to a massive Northern European ice sheet in the process of withdrawal and break-up.

The sheet’s past existence is written into more than 7,600 parallel, ladder-like ridges that have been sculpted in the seafloor’s muddy sediments. These corrugations are less than 2.5m high and are spaced between about 25m and 300m apart.

Scientists interpret the ridges to be features that are generated at an ice grounding zone.

This is the zone where glacier ice flowing off the land into the ocean becomes buoyant and starts to float. The corrugations are created as the ice at this location repeatedly pats the sediments as the daily tides rise and fall.

For the pattern to have been produced and preserved, the ice must have been in retreat (advancing ice would destroy the ridges); and the tidal “clock” therefore gives a rate for this reversal.

Story adapted from BBC

Climate change
0 comment 0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
admineconai

previous post
Oil giants accuse US govt of ‘flip-flopping’ on climate change cases
next post
Just Stop Oil activists convicted over London road blockade

Related Posts

UN agency says deadly floods show need for...

July 22, 2025

UN climate change director calls for urgent action...

July 18, 2025

Environmental activist dismisses CoP meetings on climate change...

July 18, 2025

Trump administration says it won’t publish major climate...

July 18, 2025

Report: Climate change threatening global data centres

July 14, 2025

Report: Death toll of European Heatwave 3 times...

July 9, 2025

Japanese Island evacuates residents after relentless earthquake

July 7, 2025

5.2 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast

July 7, 2025

Trump shuts down U.S. website on climate change

July 7, 2025

Report: Absa’s Mauritius Unit to Nearly Quadruple Green...

June 30, 2025

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Newsletter

Subscribe my Newsletter for new blog posts, tips & new photos. Let's stay updated!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • Bloglovin
  • Vimeo

@2021 - All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by Eco-Nai+

EcoNai Newsroom
  • Newsround
  • Nigeria
  • Africa
  • World