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Antarctica

Ice shelves guarded by snow shields

Nature Climate Change volume 13, pages 119–120 (2023)Cite this article

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Floating ice shelves that fringe Antarctica are at risk from warming ocean water and from above by warming air. Work now reveals that snow accumulation on ice shelves can minimize surface melt and ponding, but that future atmospheric warming will likely overpower this protection that snow provides, leaving ice shelves vulnerable to collapse.

Even the coldest and most remote places in Antarctica are not safe from human-induced climate change. The South Pole, for example, has warmed by 0.6 °C per decade over the past 30 years, which is three times the global average rate of warming4. While surface ice melt is nowhere near as extensive in Antarctica as in Greenland today, continued warming above the fringing ice shelves will lead to more than double the volume of surface meltwater5. Ultimately, this water has a few potential fates: infiltrate downward into the top, permeable layers (that is, fluffy to lightly compressed snow) of the ice shelf, or, if the surface is impermeable (that is, a slab of ice), the water can accumulate into ponds or streams. The pressure of the water on the ice can create cracks that propagate downward to the base of the floating ice shelf via a process called hydrofracture6. Satellites in space have observed ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula collapse and disintegrate entirely following periods of meltwater ponding at the ice-shelf surface7,8, removing the natural dams and unleashing ice flow downstream into the ocean that contributes to sea-level rise9.

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  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Lauren M. Simkins

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  1. Lauren M. Simkins
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Correspondence to Lauren M. Simkins.

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Simkins, L.M. Ice shelves guarded by snow shields. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 119–120 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01587-z

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