~1.05 km (0.7 mi) (average),[2] ~2 km (1.2 mi) (maximum)[1]
Status
Receding
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is the segment of the continental ice sheet that covers West Antarctica, the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains that lies in the Western Hemisphere. It is classified as a marine-based ice sheet, meaning that its bed lies well below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves. The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf, the Ronne Ice Shelf, and outlet glaciers that drain into the Amundsen Sea.[1]
As a smaller part of Antarctica, WAIS is also more strongly affected by climate change. There has been warming over the ice sheet since the 1950s,[3][4] and a substantial retreat of its coastal glaciers since at least the 1990s.[5] Estimates suggest it added around 7.6 ± 3.9 mm (19⁄64 ± 5⁄32 in) to the global sea level rise between 1992 and 2017,[6] and has been losing ice in the 2010s at a rate equivalent to 0.4 millimetres (0.016 inches) of annual sea level rise.[7] While some of its losses are offset by the growth of East Antarctic ice sheet, Antarctica as a whole will most likely lose enough ice by 2100 to add 11 cm (4.3 in) to sea levels. Further, marine ice sheet instability may increase this amount by tens of centimeters, particularly under high warming.[8] Fresh meltwater from WAIS also contributes to ocean stratification and dilutes the formation of salty Antarctic bottom water, which destabilizes Southern Ocean overturning circulation.[8][9][10]
In the long term, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is likely to disappear due to the warming which has already occurred.[11] Paleoclimate evidence suggests that this has already happened during the Eemian period, when the global temperatures were similar to the early 21st century.[12][13] It is believed that the loss of the ice sheet would take place between 2,000 and 13,000 years,[14][15] although several centuries of high emissions may shorten this to 500 years.[16] 3.3 m (10 ft 10 in) of sea level rise would occur if the ice sheet collapses but leaves ice caps on the mountains behind. Total sea level rise from West Antarctica increases to 4.3 m (14 ft 1 in) if they melt as well,[2] but this would require a higher level of warming.[17] Isostatic rebound of ice-free land may also add around 1 m (3 ft 3 in) to the global sea levels over another 1,000 years.[16]
The preservation of WAIS may require a persistent reduction of global temperatures to 1 °C (1.8 °F) below the preindustrial level, or to 2 °C (3.6 °F) below the temperature of 2020.[18] Because the collapse of the ice sheet would be preceded by the loss of Thwaites Glacier and Pine Island Glacier, some have instead proposed interventions to preserve them. In theory, adding thousands of gigatonnes of artificially created snow could stabilize them,[19] but it would be extraordinarily difficult and may not account for the ongoing acceleration of ocean warming in the area.[11] Others suggest that building obstacles to warm water flows beneath glaciers would be able to delay the disappearance of the ice sheet by many centuries, but it would still require one of the largest civil engineering interventions in history.
^ abFretwell, P.; et al. (28 February 2013). "Bedmap2: improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica" (PDF). The Cryosphere. 7 (1): 390. Bibcode:2013TCry....7..375F. doi:10.5194/tc-7-375-2013. S2CID 13129041. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 February 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
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and 28 Related for: West Antarctic Ice Sheet information
/ -78.73417; -133.27806 The WestAntarcticIceSheet (WAIS) is the segment of the continental icesheet that covers West Antarctica, the portion of Antarctica...
The Antarcticicesheet is a continental glacier covering 98% of the Antarctic continent, with an area of 14 million square kilometres (5.4 million square...
current icesheets are the Antarcticicesheet and the Greenland icesheet. Icesheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers. Masses of ice covering...
80°S 60°E / 80°S 60°E / -80; 60 The East AntarcticIceSheet (EAIS) lies between 45° west and 168° east longitudinally. It was first formed around 34...
Vostok). Ice shelves and rises populate the icesheet on the periphery. The present Antarcticicesheet accounts for 90 percent of Earth's total ice volume...
edifice that are buried underneath the WestAntarcticIceSheet are probably even larger. It is part of the WestAntarctic Rift System along with 18 other known...
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includes the Antarctic Peninsula. It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the WestAntarcticIceSheet. It lies...
the mainland south of the Eklund Islands. Beneath the icesheet that covers it, the Antarctic Peninsula consists of a string of bedrock islands; these...
causes net annual ice loss across Antarctica,: 1264 even as the East Antarcticicesheet continues to gain ice inland. By 2100, net ice loss from Antarctica...
WestAntarcticicesheet would cause over 5 metres (16 ft) of sea level rise. In contrast to the WestAntarcticicesheet, melt of the Greenland ice sheet...
nunataks that protrude through the WestAntarcticIceSheet. The Hudson Mountains are bounded on the north by Cosgrove Ice Shelf and on the south by Pine...
Whillans Ice Stream (83°40′S 145°00′W / 83.667°S 145.000°W / -83.667; -145.000) is a glaciological feature of the WestAntarcticIceSheet, formerly...
Glacier have been described as part of the "weak underbelly" of the WestAntarcticIceSheet, in part because they seem vulnerable to irreversible retreat and...
of retreat process. The Ross Ice Shelf is the main outlet for several major glaciers draining the WestAntarcticIceSheet, which contains the equivalent...
dissolved oxygen by the warming which occurred to date. Further, WestAntarcticicesheet appears committed to practically irreversible melting, which would...
icesheet covers 1,710,000 square kilometres (660,000 sq mi), around 80% of the surface of Greenland, or about 12% of the area of the Antarcticice sheet...
the AntarcticIceSheet at this time, including from the Mac Robertson Land region of the East AntarcticIceSheet; the Ross Sea sector of the West Antarctic...
of sea level rise. However the WestAntarcticicesheet (WAIS) is substantially more vulnerable. Temperatures on West Antarctica have increased significantly...
Adare to McMurdo Sound, the Ross Ice Shelf from McMurdo Sound to near the Scott Glacier, and the WestAntarcticIceSheet beyond. The summits and dry valleys...
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