The first direct evidence of rapid melting of glaciers at the end of the last ice age, around 8,000 years ago, has been found in Antarctica: the ice cap thinned by 450 meters in just 200 years. The discovery, published in the journal Nature Geoscience and conducted by the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey, indicates that a similar scenario could recur in the coming years, but at a more accelerated pace, due to the global increase in temperatures.
Reconstructing that very ancient melting of the ice was possible by analyzing the 651 meter long ice core taken in 2019 from the Skytrain Ice Rise, a large block of ice that today lies on the edge of the ice cap.
After transporting the ice samples to Cambridge, preserving them at a temperature of minus 20 degrees, the researchers analyzed them to reconstruct their history using as indicators the percentages of the isotopes (the possible atomic variants) of the water, from which it is possible to reconstruct the temperature when the snow fell, and the pressure of the air bubbles trapped in the ice.
These measurements have made it possible to understand that part of that ice, the one dating back to 8000 years ago, thinned very quickly: by 450 metres, or more than the height of the Empire State Building, in just under 200 years. “We now have direct evidence that this ice sheet has suffered rapid ice loss in the past,” said Eric Wolff, of Cambridge’s Earth Sciences department.
“This scenario – he added – does not exist, therefore, only in hypothetical forecasts, but could be repeated if parts of this ice cap become unstable”. A concern aggravated by the fact that the current global increase in temperatures is much faster than that recorded 8,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Antarctica’s ice sheets are estimated to contain enough water to raise global sea levels by around 57 metres, however, it is still unclear when and how quickly the ice might melt.
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