An area of East Antarctica is more vulnerable to thawing than previously believed, which could lead to a massive rise in sea levels.
According to Reuters, an area known as the Wilkes Basin, measuring 600 miles inland, could cause a sea level rise of 10-13 feet if it were to melt as a result of global warming. If a certain "ice plug" melts away, it could lead to a massive ice slide.
The research team published their work in the journal Nature Climate Change.
"East Antarctica's Wilkes Basin is like a bottle on a slant," study lead author Matthias Mengel, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said in a press release. "Once uncorked, it empties out."
A co-author of the study, fellow Potsdam researcher Anders Levermann said the ice slide would not be stoppable or reversible if it were to begin. The researchers said there will still be time to slow warming and preserve the "ice plug."
"The full sea-level rise would ultimately be up to 80 times bigger than the initial melting of the ice cork," Levermann said in the release. "Until recently, only West Antarctica was considered unstable, but now we know that it's ten times bigger counterpart in the East might also be at risk."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations group of environmentalists and scientists, recently finished an in-depth report on global warming. The report said immediate action needs to be taken to curb manmade greenhouse gases, but droughts, heat waves, large storms and rising sea levels are bound to increase. The study is the first to measure the risk in East Antarctica.
"This is the underlying issue here," said Mengel. "By emitting more and more greenhouse gases we might trigger responses now that we may not be able to stop in the future."
