3 ms·
This was about sea level rise. Glacier melting takes decades. There are potential very nonlinear effects with that too, so at some point, much later, sea level
by Gravityloss 9y ago
This was about sea level rise. Glacier melting takes decades. There are potential very nonlinear effects with that too, so at some point, much later, sea level rise can be very fast, and it's too late to do much by then anymore.
This is a very rough sketch and going by memory so best to check for yourself: on Antarctica, there are certain "gatekeeper" glaciers in valleys between the sea and large lowlands with multikilometer thick ice. If the gatekeeper glacier is lost, then the sea will flow into the big basin, and the large area will melt rapidly / float away as ice bergs etc.
Eric Rignot has some interesting presentations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3ivlofypzE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3ivlofypzE
- jessriedel 9y agoThanks!