Lakes under Antarctic ice linked to sea level rise
Blue ice covering Lake Fryxell, in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. (Photo by Joe Mastroianni, National Science Foundation)
Over 145 lakes are already known to lie beneath the ice in Antarctica.
What’s new is that many of these lakes appear to be linked together like plumbing and carry vast quantities of liquid water between them and towards the sea. If these lakes are indeed linked, they need to be taken into account in scientific models predicting how Antarctic ice melts and contributes to sea level rise. That’s because these lakes – buried under the ice – would lubricate the bottom of ice streams known to move inland ice out to sea.
And there’s another factor at work here. In Antarctica, ice collects along the coast in floating platforms called ice shelves. There’s concern that as oceans warm from climate change, the ice shelves might disintegrate. Earth scientist Robert Bindschadler of Goddard Space Flight Center was a study co–author. Earth & Sky asked him what he most wanted the public to know.
Robert Bindschadler: I think that it’s important to emphasize that the changes are happening faster and faster, and even we experts are surprised at how rapid the changes are taking place, and we’re still trying to come up with a deeper understanding so that we can predict what’s going to happen.
Over 90 percent of the world’s ice lies in Antarctica. Our thanks to NASA: explore, discover, understand.
Our thanks to:
Robert Bindschadler, Chief Scientist
Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory
Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
Chain of Cascading Lakes Discovered Under Antarctica
Science study reveals extensive water system beneath fast–moving ice streams
Hidden lakes beneath layers of ice — sounds like a tourist attraction, since that would definitely help keep the ice intact.
There’s just a lot we don’t know yet about the natural world. And some of the things we don’t know are going to impact our future …
I’m a bit of a polar bear when it comes to taking an icy dip, so this does sound intriguing. Too bad the lakes can be under thousands of feet of ice.
How could anyone with a science background actually think that the floating ice melting would cause water levels to rise? Someone quick check his degree. If the floating ice melts the water level stays the same.
The ice sheets rest on land and creep towards the sea via ice streams. In other words, ice that was sitting on land travels to the sea, where it contributes to sea level rise. The concern is that this newly discovered system of underground lakes might speed up the delivery of ice from land to sea.
sea ice is already part of the seas volume and will not raise sea levels. it would lower them slightly. if continental ice melts it will raise sea levels. continental ice is not counted as sea ice volume.
it should also be noted that lakes beneath ice in antartica have been around long enough to develop its own slimy alge which is currently under study by the nsf and national geographic so this is nothing to be alarmed about right now