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CRYOSPHERE

Grounded meets floating

Nature Geoscience volume 11, pages 223–224 (2018)Cite this article

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A comprehensive assessment of grounding-line migration rates around Antarctica, covering a third of the coast, suggests retreat in considerable portions of the continent, beyond the rates expected from adjustment following the Last Glacial Maximum.

In a warming climate, rising ocean waters pose an important challenge to society: estimates of the coastal population directly affected by the end of the century run to hundreds of millions1. Current sea-level rise is driven mostly by thermal expansion and melting of smaller glaciers, but contributions from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are expected to increase. If the transition between grounded, land-based ice and floating ice shelves — the grounding line — moves inland, this indicates increased discharge of land-based ice into the ocean. Sea-level projections, whether empirical or model-based, need observations of current ice-sheet retreat rates. Writing in Nature Geoscience, Konrad and colleagues2 present a survey of a significant portion of all sectors of Antarctica’s coastline. They find a mix of stabilization and acceleration in the glaciers of the vulnerable Amundsen Sea sector, and stable grounding lines in East Antarctica, except for Totten Glacier.

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Fig. 1: Antarctic ice shelves.

Krys Bailey / Alamy Stock Photo

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Ryan T. Walker

  2. Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    Ryan T. Walker

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  1. Ryan T. Walker
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Correspondence to Ryan T. Walker.

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Walker, R.T. Grounded meets floating. Nature Geosci 11, 223–224 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0098-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0098-4

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