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.

Orbitally triggered decomposition of soil organic carbon in terrestrial permafrost is suggested as an explanation for a series of sudden and extreme global warming events that occurred about 55 million years ago.

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.

The long-standing view of Earth