Marine ice sheet instability

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A collage of footage and animation to explain the changes that are occurring on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, narrated by glaciologist Eric Rignot.

Marine ice sheet instability (MISI) describes the potential for ice sheets grounded below sea level to destabilize in a runaway fashion. The mechanism was first proposed in the 1970s[1][2] by Johannes Weertman and was quickly identified as a means by which even gradual anthropogenic warming could lead to relatively rapid sea level rise.[3][4] In Antarctica, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the Aurora Subglacial Basin, and the Wilkes Basin are each grounded below sea level and are inherently subject to MISI.

References

  1. ↑ Weertman, J. (1974) Stability of the Junction of an Ice Sheet and an Ice Shelf Journal of Glaciology
  2. ↑ Thomas, Robert H.; Bentley, Charles R. (1978) [A Model for Holocene Retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet A Model for Holocene Retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet] Cambridge University Press
  3. ↑ Mercer, J. H. (1978) West Antarctic ice sheet and CO2 greenhouse effect: a threat of disaster nature
  4. ↑ Vaughan, David G. (2008) West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse – the fall and rise of a paradigm (PDF) DOI
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