Key Antarctic mission goes ahead

As the Antarctic summer arrives an international team of researchers is set to embark on a mission to study two vast subglacial basins in eastern Antarctica that are both little studied but of potentially huge importance for sea levels under climate change. The polar regions are expected to warm significantly as a result of human-induced climate change because of positive feedback associated with melting ice and snow. Several studies have noted a rise in Arctic temperatures over recent decades, but it has been difficult to pin this down to human activity rather than natural variability. In the Antarctic, temperature trends are less clear, and indeed the International Panel on Climate Change consider the continent to be the only one where anthropogenic temperature changes have not been detected so far. But satellite evidence on the snow and ice build-up on Antarctica, which causes the ice to be pushed out to sea, suggests that between 1993 and 2003 there was a 12 per cent increase in this movement, which may result from more rapid melting. And a new study, led by Nathan Gillett at the University of East Anglia, published online in Nature Geoscience, finds just such evidence of human influence in both Arctic and Antarctic temperatures, making the new survey even more timely. The international team believe the barely observed Aurora and Wilkes subglacial basins could represent a key component of the vast East Antarctic ice sheet — the largest remaining body of ice on Earth. The two basins together comprise an area equivalent to Mexico. Until recently, the East Antarctic ice sheet, which covers the two basins, has been considered a stable ice reservoir, unlikely to contribute to sea-level rise in the near future. But if climate change is occurring and temperatures are rising, as recent studies suggest, thawing of the east Antarctic ice sheet could lead to sea-level rises of several metres, which would be devastating for coastal environments and communities around the world. Two vast East Antarctic regions that may be vital to the outcome of global warming are under new scrutiny. Nigel Williams reports. Vital: A new international research project gets under way shortly to assess key parts of the East Antarctic ice sheet and underlying subglacial basins that may be key to understanding future climate warming. (Photo: Alamy.)