Almost the entire #WestAntarcticIceSheet sits on rock in deep depressions below #sealevel. Its vulnerable to an irreversible process where ongoing encroachment of warm ocean waters means #icemelt becomes self-sustaining, accelerating until it's gone.
https://theconversation.com/antarctic-tipping-points-the-irreversible-changes-to-come-if-we-fail-to-keep-warming-below-2-207410

#SWAIS2C #climatechange #HowMuchHowFast, #ClimateCrisis

From 2014-2017, more #Antarctic ice vanished than the Arctic lost in 3 decades. As #seaice thinned, the force of surface winds on newly exposed water strengthened the #RossGyre, warming the waters and hastening the collapse of the #WestAntarcticIceSheet https://www.science.org/content/article/dwindling-sea-ice-may-speed-melting-antarctic-glaciers

"Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points - Climate tipping points are conditions beyond which changes in a part of the climate system become self-perpetuating. These changes may lead to abrupt, irreversible, and dangerous impacts with serious implications for humanity. Armstrong McKay et al. present an updated assessment of the most important climate tipping elements and their potential tipping points, including their temperature thresholds, time scales, and impacts. Their analysis indicates that even global warming of 1°C, a threshold that we already have passed, puts us at risk by triggering some tipping points. This finding provides a compelling reason to limit additional warming as much as possible."
...
"Observations have revealed that parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet may have already passed a tipping point. Potential early warning signals of the Greenland ice sheet, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, and Amazon rainforest destabilization have been detected. Multiple abrupt shifts have been found in climate models. Recent work has suggested that up to 15 tipping elements are now active."

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn7950

#Climate #ClimateCrisis #TippingPoints #Amazon #AMOC #AMOCCollapse #GreenlandIceSheet #WestAntarcticIceSheet #WAIS #fff

This is how we see #Antarctica - at the centre of it all. #SWAIS2C is a couple of the proposed dots on the #WestAntarcticIceSheet as we will be #ScientificDrilling in two locations to understand whether the #icesheet melted in temperatures similar to 2 degrees of warming. Thanks to #IODP for the map.

How did the #Antarctic octopus cross West Antarctica during the Last Interglacial?

A sex scandal? On an octopus sex bus? Via the West Antarctic fornication highway? Or worse.. did the #WestAntarcticIceSheet collapse?!

Check out the octopus sex scandal cartoon inspired by our #preprint, created by the First Dog on the Moon!! 🐙 👀

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/06/exclusive-the-octopus-sex-scandal-that-rocked-the-antarctic

@nick_golledge @iracooke @Shmoo

📄 preprint: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.29.525778v1

#transdisciplinary #science #sealevelrise #WestAntarcticIceSheet

Check out our exciting new #preprint on West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse during the Last Interglacial highlighted this week in The Guardian! #transdisciplinary #science #sealevelrise #WestAntarcticIceSheet

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/05/clue-to-rising-sea-levels-lies-in-dna-of-4m-year-old-octopus-scientists-say?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco

@nick_golledge @iracooke @Shmoo

A fascinating look at how the #NZDefenceForce helps out with #science in #Antarctica - they recently unloaded a lot of the #SWAIS2C gear for our upcoming mission examining whether the #WestAntarcticIceSheet melted in the distant past and what that means for our warming world #HowMuchHowFast. We're grateful for all the work they do on the frozen continent.
https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/news/our-history-decades-of-flying-to-the-ice/

Understanding that #WestAntarcticIceSheet completely collapsed during #LIG will help us to define the tipping point of future #WestAntarcticIceSheet collapse under #climatechange. This will also improve future global #sealevelrise projections under different climate scenarios 8/9

We used a hypothesis-driven, hierarchical approach to specifically test if, and when, #WestAntarcticIceSheet collapsed in the past using #demographicmodels and other #popgen methods. Signatures of a complete WAIS collapse during LIG was clearly detectable in P. turqueti 7/9

For a long time, it was uncertain if the #WestAntarcticIceSheet collapsed which would have contributed to the then-sea level rise during #LIG. But geological records were blurry and models gave conflicting results 3/9

We used #PopGen and found population connectivity between Ross Sea and Weddell Sea in an #Antarctic #octopus, and dated it back to #LastInterglacialPeriod. This is only possible if #WestAntarcticIceSheet completely collapsed and opened seaway connecting 2 basins 🧵/9

Hello Mastodon!

We present #genomic evidence showing the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed during the #LastInterglacialPeriod!🇦🇶🌊🚨#popgen #icesheet #interdisciplinary

...the tipping point of future #WestAntarcticIceSheet collapse could be reached even under the #ParisAgreement (+1.5-2.0°C)

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.26.525648v1