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This panoramic photo of Vostok Station shows the layout of the camp, used by Russian, French and American scientists studying the lake and the deep coring possibilities of the Antarctic. NOAA/Getty Images
53 million years ago, Antarctica was a forested wilderness, a lush environment where palm trees took root. Now, more than 97 percent of the world s southernmost continent is covered by ice.
The magnificent ice sheet that blankets Antarctica holds 6.4 million cubic miles (27 million cubic kilometers) of frozen water. From top to bottom, it s over 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) thick in some places.
Our global sea level would rise by 190 feet (58 meters) if all that ice melted. As things presently stand, the frigid sheet conceals a hidden world.
We all know the type. Certain people treat every conversation about bad or extreme weather like it s some kind of contest. Maybe their hometown is snowier than yours. Maybe they ve lived through more blizzards. In any case, these charming folks can t resist a little meteorological one-upmanship. Shallow depressions in a high-elevation part of the East Antarctic Plateau have the capacity to become the coldest places on the face of the Earth during their polar winter. Eli Duke/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
We all know the type. Certain people treat every conversation about bad or extreme weather like it s some kind of contest. Maybe their hometown is snowier than yours. Maybe they ve lived through more blizzards. In any case, these charming folks can t resist a little meteorological one-upmanship.
Ice sheet collapse in Antarctic would result in more sea level rise than expected, Harvard study finds
By Charlie McKenna Globe Correspondent,Updated May 4, 2021, 3:27 p.m.
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The Thwaites Glacier in the West Antarctic.AP
The global sea level will rise higher than previously expected if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapses, according to a new study from Harvard researchers.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Advances on April 28, was led by graduate students Linda Pan and Evelyn Powell.
Pan and Powell found the ocean level would rise an additional meter, about 3 feet, higher than previously predicted over the next 1,000 years if the ice sheet collapses entirely.