Mass loss from the West Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers has been linked to basal melt by ocean heat flux. The Totten Ice Shelf in East Antarctica, which buttresses a marine-based ice sheet with a volume equivalent to at least 3.5 m of global sea-level rise, also experiences rapid basal melt, but the role of ocean forcing was not known because of a lack of observations near the ice shelf. Observations from the Totten calving front confirm that (0.22 ± 0.07) × 106 m3 s−1 of warm water enters the cavity through a newly discovered deep channel. The ocean heat transport into the cavity is sufficient to support the large basal melt rates inferred from glaciological observations. Change in ocean heat flux is a plausible physical mechanism to explain past and projected changes in this sector of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and its contribution to sea level.
Original Source [2]
Links:
[1] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/feature-article/ocean-heat-drives-rapid-basalt-melt-totten-ice-shelf
[2] http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/12/e1601610
[3] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/author/stephen-rich-rintoul
[4] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/author/alessandro-silvano
[5] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/author/beatriz-pena-molino-et-al
[6] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/journal/science-advances
[7] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/climate-change
[8] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/climate-science
[9] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/oceans-and-seas
[10] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/antarctica
[11] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/glacial-melt
[12] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/global-warming
[13] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/sea-level-rise