West Antarctic ice sheet faces ‘unavoidable’ melting, a warning for sea level rise – the Washington Post
![Aerial view of heavily compacted first-year sea ice along the edge of the the Amundsen Sea, captured by the NASA IceBridge Project Team, October 16, 2009 (credit: IceBridge DMS L0 Raw Imagery courtesy of the Digital Mapping System (DMS) team/NASA DAAC at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, public domain).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/GSFC_20171208_Archive_e000945large-798x532.jpeg)
Accelerating ice losses are all but “unavoidable” this century in vulnerable West Antarctic ice shelves as waters warm around them, according to new research. And the analysis could mean scientists were too conservative in predicting about one to three feet of sea level rise by 2100…
Greenland’s ice shelves hold back sea level rise. There are just 5 left – the Washington Post
![Ice accelerating as it flows towards the coast creates heavy crevassing near the coast of Melville Bay in west Greenland (by John Sonntag/NASA’s Operation IceBridge courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory, public domain).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/crevassing_oibphoto_2015121_lrg-798x532.jpeg)
And now there are only five large shelves left, stretching out from their fjords toward the Greenland Sea and the Arctic Ocean. That includes three major ones — Petermann, Ryder and Nioghalvfjerdsbrae (often referred to as 79 North for its location in degrees latitude) — whose respective glaciers could ultimately account for 3.6 feet of sea level rise if they were to melt entirely — a process that would take centuries to play out…