Are We Missing A Critical Component Of Sea Level Rise
Recent efforts using computer modeling to understand how melting Antarctic ice will affect the planet’s oceans have focused on ice sheet geometry, fracturing, and surface melting—processes that could potentially cause or to accelerate ice mass loss. Now, researchers from Stanford University have identified an additional process that could have a similarly significant effect on the ice sheet’s future: the thawing of the bed, known as basal thaw, at the interface of the Earth and the ice sheet above it....