Antarctica immisce in giant icebergs and warns of its effects on global climate

The changes that have occurred in Antarctica in recent years are raising doubts among scientists around the world. Is this the the melting in the white continent has increased considerably in the last time and they are more common detachments of huge blocks of ice.

The melting polar helmets In addition to raising the level of the oceans, it could multiply extreme weather events and destabilize the climate in some regions over the next decades, warned a recent study published in the magazine Nature.

Billions of tons of water from melting ice could weaken the ocean currents that currently carry the cold waters south submerge it down from the Atlantic and push the tropical waters further north, closer to the surface.

More specifically, the extent of the Antarctic ice sheet experienced several days of record lows in January after a rapid thaw in December. anticipate an unprecedented annual minimum in March.

Thus, as of January 1, the extent of Antarctic ice cover was 5.47 million square kilometers, the lowest extension recorded to date in the 40-year-old satellite. This value is 30,000 square kilometers lower than the historical minimum prior to January 1, 2017, and 1.88 million square kilometers average from 1981 to 2010, reports the US National Snow & Ice Data Center.

In the study, it was determined that the extension decreased by 253,000 km 2 per day until December, much faster than the December 2010 average of 214,000 km 2 for the 1981 to 2010 period. . In fact, the rate of ice loss in Antarctica for December 2018 is the fastest in the satellite register, although it is close to 2010 and 2005.

The rapid loss of ice until December 2018 and until early January 2019 laid bare vast areas of the Southern Ocean, normally covered with ice at this time of the year. ;year. In early December 2018, a large band of ice surrounded most of the Antarctic continent, although areas of open water began to appear along the coasts near the Amery pack ice. and inside the pack ice to the east of the Weddell Sea.

Known by the acronym AMOC (Meridian Return Circulation of Atlantic), this oceanic mechanism plays a crucial role in the climate system and helps maintain some warmth in the northern hemisphere.

"According to our models, melting ice will cause major disturbances to ocean currents and alter global warming levelsexplained the lead author of the report, Nicholas Golledge, of the Antarctic Research Center of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

But more than three decades ago, it was discovered that Antarctica was beginning to melt. That's what the University of California and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said.

Another study published in late 2018 by National Geographicthe edges of the Larsen C platform break up as easily as a sand castle. In addition, on its surface, large cracks are distributed that share the space with molten lagoons up to 400 square meters.

According to official reports, the fissure that is about to separate the Larsen C from the mainland stretches for about 200 kilometers and in some of its sectors reaches a width of 2,000 meters. When it finally reaches its full extension, it will cause the creation of an iceberg of about 5,000 km 2 (about 25 times the surface of the city of Buenos Aires).

Eric Rignot, a professor at the University of California and scientist at NASA, said the recent climate changes in recent years reveal an early fracture. "From my experience, when the gap takes a 90 ° turn, as in this case, the fracture is about to occur. It's a matter of weeks"

The importance of this fracture lies in the fact that the ice about to come off is located on a series of islands. If the disarmament and breakup of icebergs are shrinking and especially, as scientists think, at a rising speed, the sea level would rise more than three meters flooding entire cities around the world. .

This year, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release a much anticipated report on sea level rise.