Antarctic Water Has Warmed Over the Past 50 Years and May Melt Glaciers

Antarctic ice is continuing to melt, which may mean higher sea levels. This makes it crucial to monitor exactly how much the ice is melting and what's causing it to melt. Now, scientists have discovered that water temperatures, in particular on the shallow shelf seas of West Antarctica, are rising.

The scientists discovered this rise in temperature by evaluating all oceanographic data from the waters around Antarctica from 1960 to 2014 that were available in public databases. The data revealed that five decades ago, water masses in the West Antarctic shelf seas were already warmer than in other parts of Antarctica, such as in the Weddell Sea. However, this temperature difference isn't constant. Since 1960, the temperature in the West Antarctic Amundsen Sea and the Bellingshausen Sea have been rising.

"There are many large glaciers in the area," said Sunke Schmidtko, the lead author of the new study, in a news release. "The elevated temperatures have accelerated the melting and sliding of these glaciers in recent decades and there are no indications that this trend is changing."

Over the past 50 years, waters have warmed in the West Antarctic. This, in turn, has caused ice to melt. If the water continues to warm, the increased penetration of warmer water masses onto the shelf may further accelerate this process.

The ice cap on the southern continent is, on average, 2,100 meters thick and contains about 70 percent of the world's fresh water. If this ice mass were to melt completely, then it could raise the global sea level by as much as 60 meters. That's why it's crucial to monitor the Antarctic as temperatures warm.

Currently, scientists aren't sure of the exact reasons for the increase of the heating and the rising of warm water masses. However, they believe that they could be related to large-scale variations in wind systems over the southern hemisphere. Yet which processes specifically play a role need to be evaluated.

The findings are published in the journal Science.

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