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When Greenland ice melts

Nature volume 404, pages 551–552 (2000)Cite this article

Sea levels are likely to rise in response to global warming. But by how much? Identification of the causes of the six-metre surge during the last interglacial provides a useful clue.

Glaciers and ice sheets grow and shrink in step with climate changes. In turn, global sea level varies according to the amount of water stored as ice in glaciers and ice sheets or released as melt water. For example, during the last interglacial (130,000 to 110,000 years ago) the climate was warmer than today, and the global sea level was around six metres higher than at present. Then, during the last ice age, enormous ice sheets grew in the Northern Hemisphere, and at their maximum (about 20,000 years ago) the sea level was around 120 metres lower than it is today. A question being considered in the debate over global climate change is the threat of a rapid increase in sea level owing to the possible collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Complete melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet today would lead to a sea level rise of around six to seven metres accompanied by catastrophic global flooding. Because of the high sea level during the last interglacial, it was suggested that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may have disintegrated completely, and could do so again with global warming.

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Figure 1: A small fishing boat is dwarfed by icebergs in the Jakobshavn ice fjord, West Greenland.

BRYAN AND CHERRY ALEXANDER PHOTOGRAPHY

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  1. Department of Geophysics, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, Copenhagen, DK-2100, Denmark

    Christine Schøtt Hvidberg

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  1. Christine Schøtt Hvidberg
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Correspondence to Christine Schøtt Hvidberg.

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Hvidberg, C. When Greenland ice melts. Nature 404, 551–552 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35007164

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