Project - ScotIce: How fast could ice caps collapse?

ScotIce: How fast could ice caps collapse?

Average surface air temperatures have been rising everywhere on Earth over the last century and are predicted to continue to rise for at least the next century. One of the clearest indicators of this warming is the shrinking of glaciers and the marked reduction of sea ice in the Arctic, where atmospheric warming is most pronounced. Melting of sea ice does not contribute to sea level rise, but meltwater from land-based glaciers and ice caps ends up in the oceans and is a major contributor to sea level rise.

How fast will glaciers and ice caps melt? Will they disappear in decades, adding all of their water rapidly to the oceans, or will the melting occur over a longer time span, with a less rapid but ultimately the same amount of sea level rise. For the 150 million people living within 1 m of high tide, and those concerned about maintaining trillions of pounds worth of global coastal infrastructure, answering the question of how fast glaciers and ice caps will melt and contribute to sea level rise is important. ScotIce will determine how fast ice caps can melt by analysing the collapse of the ice cap that existed in Scotland about 11600 years ago and disappeared at a time when temperatures rose by 8C, the same as the temperature rise predicted for the Arctic by 2100.

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funded by: NERC Arctic Office

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