Antarctica's irregular heartbeat shows signs of rapid melting

10 December 2024

Periods of sudden melting in the Antarctic ice sheet have been unearthed in a new climate record from over 20 million years ago by geoscientists led by the University of Leicester and the University of Southampton.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the new study reveals how sensitive our planet's early ice ages were to the effect of the Earth's eccentric orbit around the Sun, suggesting the Antarctic ice sheet is less stable than has been assumed.

It also provides a glimpse of how the Antarctic may behave in a world without the Greenland Ice Sheet, which will melt if emissions continue unabated.

Records show that the Antarctic ice sheet has varied in size throughout its history. These variations in size occur regularly, just like a heartbeat. Existing records from different places in the ocean show different 'rhythms' in the heartbeat of early Antarctic ice ages. This should not be possible because the imprint of the waxing and waning of the Antarctic ice sheet on the climate record should be identical everywhere in the ocean, just as it should not be possible that your leg has a different pulse rate than your arm.

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