Climate and ice-sheet modelling that includes ice fracture dynamics reveals that Antarctica could contribute more than a metre of sea-level rise by 2100 and more than 15 metres by 2500, if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated.
The West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS), with ice volume equivalent to approx5 m of sea level, has long been considered capable of past and future catastrophic collapse. Today, the ice sheet is fringed by vulnerable floating ice shelves that buttress the fast flow of inland ice streams.
