Evidence from a 2,000-foot-long ice core reveals that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shrank suddenly and dramatically around 8,000 years ago, according to new research providing an alarming insight into how quickly Antarctic ice could melt and send sea levels soaring.
Eight thousand years ago, Antarctica's West Antarctic Ice Sheet thinned rapidly by 450 meters in just 200 years, exposing vulnerability to climate change.
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<p>Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey have uncovered the first direct evidence that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shrunk suddenly and dramatically at the end of the Last Ice Age, around eight thousand years ago. The evidence, contained within an ice core, shows that in one location the ice sheet thinned by 450 metres — that’s more than the height of the Empire State Building — in just under 200 years.</p>