Ocean Temperature Rise Threatens Worlds Biggest Ice Shelf

Ocean warming of half a degree Celsius was enough to set off significant thinning of the world’s largest ice shelf several thousand years ago, according to computer simulations in a Nature Communications study, and in the past seven years, ocean temperatures near the shelf have jumped as much as 0.2 degrees higher than normal. A natural oceanic conveyor belt has kept Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf melt rates low for decades, but the report suggests rearranged currents today could lead to a gradual but substantial sea-level rise.